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Bird American Genre Scene
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Harry Roseland“His Last Friend, c. 1900” by Harry Roseland Old Man
Bird American Genre SceneCirca 1900
Circa 1900
$6,500
£4,949.75
€5,652.29
CA$9,133.30
A$10,020.97
CHF 5,278.57
MX$119,210.05
NOK 67,617.81
SEK 61,744.29
DKK 42,228.07
About the Item
A wonderful example of Roseland’s beloved genre scenes from the turn of the 20th century. This painting depicts an elderly man seated at a cluttered table, gently interacting with a small yellow canary perched on his hand. Roseland captures a powerful contrast between the man’s weathered, weary appearance and the bird’s lively, vibrant energy. The man’s expressive face - marked by age, melancholy, and tenderness - is framed by wisps of gray hair and thin spectacles perched on his nose. His slumped posture and introspective gaze suggest his solitude, implying that the bird is perhaps his only remaining companion, hence the title.
Roseland’s technical skill is evident in the meticulous textures he achieves throughout the composition. The folds of the man’s wrinkled and torn white shirt, the gleam on his eyeglasses, the roughness of the worn books and scattered papers - all are painted with a tactile realism that draws the viewer into the scene. The earthy palette, dominated by muted reds, browns, and ochre, envelops the composition in a somber atmosphere. Every object in the room feels carefully chosen to evoke a sense of quiet decay: the piles of worn books and letters, the aged tablecloth, and the dim, sparsely decorated interior speak of a life once fuller, now diminished.
Thematically, this work is a sincere meditation on loneliness, loyalty, and the enduring need for connection. In the turn of the century when this was painted, society was grappling with the effects of industrialization and urbanization, often leaving the elderly marginalized. Roseland, whose body of work explored social narratives and everyday life with empathy, presents this deeply personal moment. He offers an unsparing yet tender portrait of human resilience - the man’s careful handling of the bird suggests that even in isolation, there remains an innate human capacity for care and affection.
This work is oil on canvas and is signed in the upper left. It is housed in an antique gold frame. There are a couple of period labels on the back of the stretcher, including an anonymous exhibition label and another from The American Lithographic Company. The work is additionally inscribed with the title in pencil on the stretcher.
Roseland used the same interior and perspective in another work “A Stitch in Time, 1898” - sold Bonhams Skinner, 9/11/2024, lot 37.
Size:
14 inches tall by 20 inches wide (painting)
18.5 inches tall by 24.5 inches wide by 3 inches deep (frame)
Provenance:
The American Lithographic Co., New York;
Mr.
Mrs. Allan Stradley, Maryland;
Private collection;
Acquired from the above
About the artist:
Harry Roseland painted portraits and genre works, or scenes of everyday life, on subjects ranging from immigrant agricultural workers on New York farms to urban scenes of everyday life in New York City. Roseland was born to German immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York, where he spent his entire life. Initially self-taught, he studied art at the Adelphi Art Academy in Brooklyn with painter John Barnard Whittaker (1836–1926) and in New York with figure and landscape artist J. Carroll Beckwith.
Unlike many successful American artists of his generation, Roseland never visited Europe to further his studies, and he sought out specific subject matter that had received little attention from other American artists. At a young age in the early 1880s, he began to paint genre scenes of African American life after Emancipation. His idealized scenes of everyday activities, such as women reading tea leaves, families sharing a meal together, and Sunday worship, became extremely popular, and even though Roseland had never visited the South, his paintings were received as authentic portrayals of post-Civil War life. By the late 1880s, Roseland turned his attention to subjects nearer at hand: the people who worked the potato and pea fields of Long Island, not far from his Brooklyn home. His Long Island farm hands are sturdy and industrious, and they join the New England country folk and picturesque European peasants frequently depicted by other American artists in the late nineteenth century.
Roseland's canvases were highly popular and well-regarded by his contemporaries. Widely reproduced in popular magazines, they garnered several prizes between 1885 and 1930 and were exhibited in prestigious annual salons at institutions in New York and other cities. Roseland's art fell out of critical favor in the last decades of his long career, but he continued to experiment with new subjects and approaches for his story-telling art.
Condition: Very good overall condition. Recently professionally cleaned. Faint stretcher bar impressions visible in raking light. Minor inpainting to address frame abrasion along extreme edges. Antique frame with losses, cracking and wear to the finish. It is ready to be displayed and enjoyed!
- Creator:Harry Roseland (1866 - 1950, American)
- Creation Year:Circa 1900
- Dimensions:Height: 18.5 in (46.99 cm)Width: 24.5 in (62.23 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Very good overall condition. Recently professionally cleaned. Faint stretcher bar impressions visible in raking light. Minor inpainting to address frame abrasion along extreme edges. Antique frame with losses, cracking and wear to the finish.
- Gallery Location:Yardley, PA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2911217259652
Harry Roseland
Harry Roseland was one of the most prominent American subject picture painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is most famous today for his poignant and compassionate scenes depicting the working lives of poor African-Americans but his early portraits of young society beauties are much rarer and no less impressive. Today, Roseland’s most famous admirer is perhaps Oprah Winfrey whose favorite painting in her collection is Roseland's 1904 work To the Highest Bidder.
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