Lot 167: Carl Gutherz O/C Painting, French Gardener, Likely Godefroy-Lebeuf, Paris Exposition 1889

Carl Gutherz or Guthers (Tennessee/Missouri, 1844-1907) oil on canvas painting, “Man with Cyclamens,” 1889. A bearded gardener stands in a greenhouse filled with red, pink, and white flowering plants, 1889. He wears a straw hat and blue work coat with overalls and smokes a pipe while he examines a potted plant. Signed, dated, and inscribed “Paris,” lower right. Housed in a painted wooden frame. Sight: 50 3/4 in. H x 36 3/4 in. W. Frame: 52 1/2 in. H x 38 1/4 in. W. Note: This painting likely relates to the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889 and may depict the noted horticulturalist Alexandre Godefroy-Lebeuf (1852-1903), publisher of the journal “Le Jardin” which provided information about the exposition’s garden and plant offerings for the exposition’s guide book. According to this publication, cut cyclamens could be purchased at the exposition from October 4th-9th. Source: EXPOSITION DE 1889 GUIDE BLEU DU FIGARO ET DU PETIT JOURNAL (Paris: Guide Bleu, 1889), pp. 89-90. Literature: CARL GUTHERZ: POETIC VISION AND ACADEMIC IDEALS, eds. Marilyn Masler and Marina Pacini (Memphis, TN: Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, 2009), no. 32. Artist Biography: Guthers, 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 moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he taught at Washington University and helped establish the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts. Gutherz 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: Overall very good condition, canvas has been lined. With minor, scattered retouch primarily to left arm and beard, largest area 1 1/2 in x 1 1/2 in, plus fine craquelure throughout. See UV photography. Frame with minor abrasions and losses.