Lot 199: Carl Gutherz O/B Portrait of The Artist’s Daughter Plus Study

Carl Gutherz or Guthers (Tennessee/Missouri, 1844-1907) oil on board full-length portrait depicting the artist’s daughter, Godfriede. She is depicted seated, gazing to her left, resting against a pillow, and holding her head with her right arm and red book with her left arm. She is attired in a white lace dress with a sky blue sash around her waist and pulled back hair in a matching blue ribbon. Signed, dated, and inscribed lower left “Carl Gutherz, Paris 1895, To his child Godfriede.” Together with a pencil study on paper of his daughter in a similar pose, signed, dated “’67,” and inscribed “My Daughter Godfriede,” lower left. Painting is housed in a later parcel gilt wood frame. Sight: 38 1/2 in. H x 31 3/8 in. W. Framed: 41 1/2 in. H x 34 1/2 in. W. Study measures: 22 1/4 in. H x 17 1/2 in. W. 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:

Painting is in overall good condition with light surface abrasions to the left and right margins, likely from an earlier frame. Study with toning to paper,  minor losses/chipping to the upper margin, and losses to both lower corners.