Richard Clague (American/Louisiana, 1821-1873)

Lot description

Richard Clague (American/Louisiana, 1821-1873), "Sawmill Near Madisonville", ca. 1870, oil on canvas, signed lower left, a "New Orleans Museum of Art" exhibition label en verso backing, 6-1/2" x 11-1/2". Presented in a period water-gilt frame. Provenance: The Estate of Karolyn Kuntz Westervelt, New Orleans, Louisiana. Exhibited: New Orleans Museum of Art, Richard Clague Retrospective, November 17-December 30, 1974, #68; Louisiana State Museum, Friends of the Cabildo, 250 Years of Life in New Orleans, The Rosemonde E. and Emile Kuntz Collection and the Felix H. Kuntz Collection, Exhibition Part III, May 21-June 23, 1965, #55. After the U.S. Government, in 1850, declared the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana to be a "health zone" almost completely free of the ravages of yellow fever, malaria and other diseases which flourished in the humid, densely populated New Orleans, visitors began to flock to the towns of Madisonville, Mandeville and Covington. The need for hotels, spas and resorts to accommodate these people, some of whom became permanent residents, necessitated an active building community. Madisonville, which had been for some time a shipbuilding and sawmill town, began to flourish. Transport and building had been an important part of the port town's identity from its establishment by Jean Baptiste Baham (1730-1812) in 1800, and there had been active sawmills in the region for some time. It is therefore not surprising that an artist such as Richard Clague, who was intensely interested in the landscape and industry of Louisiana, would choose to paint a scene such as the one presented here. Other works by the artist that reveal the same juxtaposition of nature and commerce include scenes of drilling rigs, farm workers, and train tracks.