Lot 311: John Calvin Stevens (1855-1940) American architect

John Calvin Stevens (1855-1940) was an American architect who worked in the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style. He designed more than 1,000 buildings in the state of Maine. Typed letter signed, 1926, 1 page, approx. 8 x 10.5 in. Stevens sent this letter to the noted American artist, Douglas Volk [1856-1935] Douglas was born to be an artist. His father was the famous sculptor Leonard Wells Volk and his mother Emily Barlow Volk was counsin to Senator Steven Douglas. At a young age Douglas showed an ability to draw and was taken seriously later studying with George Inness, and at age 14 took classes at the Accademia San Luca in Italy. In 1873 Volk went to Paris to study at Ecole des Beaux Arts with the Master Jean-Leon Gerome. When he returned to the U.S. he began teaching at The Cooper Institute in New York and in 1886 was founder of the Minneapolis School Of Fine Art. In 1893 Volk was chosen for the selection committee at the Columbian Expo where he exhibited three paintings and the the gold medal, his first major award. In 1899 the National Academy granted him membership. His paintings hang in many important collections including the Metropolitan Museum in NY. Douglas Volk first ventured into Lincoln portraiture in 1908, and that canvas, reworked in 1917, eventually found its way into the National Gallery of Art. It also achieved a kind of anonymous familiarity between 1954 and 1968, when it was featured on the regular four-cent U.S. postage stamp. When in 1860, Lincoln sat in Leonard Volk's studio, a liittle child was running in and out. The great man took him on his knee and asked his name. It was Douglas. It was this boy, long grown to manhood who was the paint one of the most famous portraits of Lincoln. One of his Lincoln portraits hangs in the Lincoln Bedroom in The White House. VG.

VG