George de Forest Brush (American, 1855-1941)

Lot description

George de Forest Brush (American, 1855-1941) George de Forest Brush (American, 1855-1941) The artist's family signed 'Geo de Forest Brush' l.c., oil on board 152.5 x 183.5cm, unframed This group portrait depicts (from left) Georgia, Tribbie, Mrs Brush holding Mary, Gerome and Nancy. The artist’s daughter Nancy Douglas Bowditch describes in her book, ‘George de Forest Brush: Recollections of a Joyous Painter’, how her father, a pupil of the celebrated Jean Leon Gerome in Paris, began painting ‘The Family Group’ in 1898 when they were living in a small village near Fontainebleau; he continued working on it when the family moved to Florence later the same year and it was finished by the time they returned to America in 1899. According to his daughter, Brush then ‘painted almost exclusively his wife and children, except for commissioned portrait orders’. Our picture is very similar in composition to the ‘Family Group’ of 1898, as illustrated in the book (fig. 22), but with minor differences in detail. It is unlikely to be a preparatory sketch on such a scale, but may well be another version of the portrait painted at a later date. A copy of the book is included with this lot.