Lot 14: A European collector HELEN SEARLE (1830-1884) Nature~dq~s Bounty, 1872 signed "Helen Searle

1872" (lower right) oil on canvas 17 3/4 x 22 1/8 in. (45 x 56.2 cm) Although she is little known today, and her works are extremely rare, Helen R. Searle was not only one of the best-trained still-life painters among nineteenth century American artists, but was also involved in several important artists~dq~ communities. Born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1834,1 her architect father moved the family to Rochester, New York, in 1844. Searle developed into a painter of flower, fruit, and game still life, which she began to create in 1863, where she exhibited six still lifes at the Babies~dq~ Hospital Relief Bazaar in Rochester, and the following years began showing fruit and flower pictures at the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. On the basis of these achievements, she was appointed the teacher of painting and drawing at Mrs. Bryan~dq~s Female Seminary at Batavia, New York. Continuing her own creative efforts, Searle was determined to place herself at the front of her profession, and recognized the need for European training.2 From 1867-1871, she became a private student under Johann Wilhelm Preyer, the most celebrated still-life painter in the noted artists~dq~ community of Düsseldorf, Germany. There she absorbed Preyer~dq~s firmness of draftsmanship and clarity of form, ultimately derived from Dutch seventeenth and eighteenth century models. Searle had already begun to exhibit her paintings in New York at the National Academy of Design in 1866, and continued to send still-lifes for exhibition through 1868. In addition, her very Preyer-like still life paintings were reproduced as chromolithographs by Ehrgott and Forbinger, Printers & Publishers in Cincinnati. Searle returned to the United States in 1871, and set up an atelier in Washington, D.C. Five years later, she married the landscape and figure painter and art writer, James William Pattison. After their marriage, the two artists lived for some time in the artists~dq~ community in Ecouen, outside of Paris, their home becoming a rendezvous for artists and writers. In 1879, she exhibited a fruit still life at the Paris Salon under her maiden name, listing herself as a student of Preyer. Illness brought the couple back to the United States in 1881, first to New York and Chicago, and then to Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1884, where James Pattison became the Director of the School of Fine Arts at the Jacksonville Female Academy. Jacksonville had developed into a thriving center for artistic activity at the time, with a dynamic Art Association. Helen Searle Pattison continued to exhibit her work occasionally at the National Academy of Design through 1883. She died in Jacksonville on November 21, 1884.3 Among Searle~dq~s finished paintings, almost all of them are in the manner of her teacher, Johann Preyer. Formally arranged tabletop fruit still lifes, often with champagne glasses and glass römers, they are all rendered in clear light. While the individual fruit here - the peaches, grapes, and plums, are very much in Searle~dq~s - and Preyer~dq~s - manner, the casual arrangement of the objects, the suggestion of the outdoor setting, and especially the introduction of the two birds, are extremely unusual, affirming our incomplete knowledge of Searle~dq~s remarkable ability in still-life painting. We are grateful to Dr. William Gerdts for cataloguing this work. Notes 1 Most references to Searle give her birth date as 1830, but in the Rochester, New York, censuses for 1850 and 1855, she was listed as aged 16 and 21, respectively. 2 W.H. McIntosh, History of Monroe County, New York. Philadelphia, Everts, Ensign and Everts, 1877. 2 The most comprehensive treatment of Searle is that by Carston Roth in the Lexikon der Düsseldorfer Malerschule 1819-1918, 3 volumes. Munich, Bruckmann, 1998, volume 3, p. 268.