Lot 1123: 2 Carl Gutherz O/C Studies for Evening of the 6th Day Plus Sketch

Two (2) Carl Gutherz or Guthers (Tennessee/Missouri, 1844-1907) oil on canvas paintings, both studies for the artist’s monumental 1893 painting “The Evening of the Sixth Day,” plus signed pencil drawing of the same with catalog entry and note written by Gutherz. 1st item: Painting of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with God enthroned in the sky before them. A rainbow arches through the upper left and angels appear faintly throughout the sky. Unsigned. With two inventory stickers or labels and Paul Foinet (Paris) stamp to verso. Unframed and unstretched. Canvas (with tacking edge): 23 in. H x 33 1/2 in. W. Image (sight area): 21 in. H x 31 3/4 in. W. 2nd item: Painting of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with God before them enthroned within a sphere — the heavenly firmament — and accompanied by numerous angels. Unsigned. Unframed. 16 1/2 in. H x 23 3/4 in. W. 3rd item: Pencil sketch of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with God enthroned before them and numerous angels to left and right. Signed and dated within the image, lower right, and with handwritten title in French below. With Gutherz’s printed explanatory note in English affixed to sheet below image along with handwritten note in French with instructions to have the printed text translated to French for a catalog. Signed by the artist in pencil. Housed in a folded card mount (previously laid down but glue has failed). Image: 6 in. H x 9 in. W. Sheet: 18 3/4 in. H x 12 in. W. Mount: 23 1/8 in. H x 17 3/4 in. W. (Folded: 11 1/2 in. x 17 3/4 in.) Note: The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art identifies these as compositional studies for Gutherz’s “The Evening of the Sixth Day,” which depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and was sold by Case (ref. Case Auctions Winter 2025 catalog, lot 214). Literature: The Evening of the Sixth Day is the focus of Kristin Schwain’s essay “Carl Gutherz’s Esoteric Art” in CARL GUTHERZ: POETIC VISION AND ACADEMIC IDEALS, eds. Marilyn Masler and Marina Pacini (Memphis, TN: Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, 2009) pp. 56-83. Artist Biography: “Gutherz, who was born in Switzerland, emigrated as a child to the U.S. in 1851. He lived with his family in Memphis, Tennessee, through the Civil War and then studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and the Academie Julian, as well as in Munich, Brussels, and Rome. In 1875 he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he taught at Washington University and helped establish the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts. Guthers continued to take portrait commissions from Memphis, however, and even designed costumes and floats for the annual Memphis Mardi Gras. In 1884 he returned to Paris, where he studied with Gustave Boulanger and Joseph LeFevre. Here, he became associated with the Symbolist movement and produced his most successful paintings including large allegorical works, often featuring Christian imagery. Back in the U.S. he was hired to create murals for institutions including the Library of Congress, the People’s Church of St. Paul Minnesota, and the Allen County (Indiana) Courthouse. A year before his death, he produced a design for an arts and sciences pavilion which was the basis for the development of the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, later the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.” (Source: The Tennessee Encyclopedia)

PROVENANCE:

Deaccessioned by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art to benefit the acquisitions fund. 

CONDITION:

Paintings in overall very good condition. Item 1 with abrasions and accretions plus areas of flaking, largest to upper left, 4 inch x 3/4 inch. Canvas has been removed from stretcher, with tack holes along tacking edge. Also with pinholes to edges and corners. Item 2 with missing upper left corner and pinholes to edges plus 3/8 x 3/8 inch puncture to lower left corner. Item 3 with wrinkling and adhesive stains to sheet, including to sky within image, plus loss to lower left edge and tear without loss to lower right corner of sheet.