Lot 123: Francis Speight O/C Exhibited Philadelphia Cityscape, Blantyre Mills, Manayunk

Francis Speight (North Carolina/Pennsylvania, 1896-1989) oil on canvas winter cityscape painting, 1952. Two industrial buildings stand in the melting snow at the corner of Cotton and Main Sts. in Manayunk, Philadelphia, with a dilapidated building and hillside visible in the distance at right. Signed “F. Speight” and dated, lower right. Exhibition label en verso of stretcher for Corcoran Gallery, 1957, along with stamp for Henry M. Taws, Philadelphia art supplier. Housed in a painted and giltwood frame with textile liner and painted and gilt fillet. Canvas: 20 in H x 32 in W. Sight: 19 in H x 28 3/4 in W. Frame: 31 3/4 in H x 41 3/4 in W. Exhibition History: Twenty-Fifth Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings, Corcoran Gallery, January 13-March 10, 1957, and Toledo Museum of Art, April 1-30, 1957. Listed in the exhibition catalog as number 213, with indication that the painting was a jury selection. A copy of the exhibition catalog accompanies this lot. Note: Possibly the oldest Manayunk mill that still stands today, construction of the building complex shown in this painting–called Blantyre Mills–commenced in 1847. At this time Manayunk played an important role as a center for textile production and the building functioned as a cotton mill. Today, it serves an as an apartment complex. See photography sequence. (Source: Sara Jane Elk, WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD: A SELECTIVE GUIDE TO THE INDUSTRIAL ARCHEOLOGY OF PHILADELPHIA, Philadelphia: Oliver Evans Press, 1990).

CONDITION: Overall very good condition. Scattered liquid surface accretions or spatter to center of painting visible under UV light. See UV photograph.