Lot 299: JURGAN FREDERICK HUGE (1809-1878)

BARGE AND TOW-BOAT IN BRIDGEPORT HARBOR
oil on canvas
20 x 42 1/4 in.

The Huge Family
The Old Print Shop, New York City

Property from Sunstone sold to Benefit The Norman and Susan Ember Foundation

Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1809, Jurgan Frederick Huge came to America and settled in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he lived until his death in 1878. His descendants reveal that Jurgen and his brother, Peter Henry, worked their way to America as seamen and briefly continued to work at sea before turning to new vocations. Jurgen was listed as a "grocer and artist" until 1871, when he was listed as a "teacher in drawing and painting, landscape and marine artist." Huge's paintings demonstrate a clarity of line and color, both in his oils and his watercolors.

Huge's early interest in the sea and his technical knowledge of ships account for his success in being able to represent them in precise detail in his paintings. Bridgeport Harbor was a theme throughout his life such as this fine example, and while he occasionally exercised artistic license and modified his landscapes and harbor scenes with fanciful buildings, the clarity of detail and sparkling color remain his greatest legacy.

In an old account of Bridgeport by Julian Sterling whose family home was a subject of Huge's (see Lipman, American Folk Painters of Three Centuries, New York, 1980, p. 113) recounted "Near the factory was the village store, of which Mr. Huge was the proprietor. He was an artist as well as a store keeper and amused himself by painting mairine views and waterpicutures" Huge painted nearly every kind of ship, and each were studied for their character. He skillfully lettered each of his works with the subject matter.

The lighthouse shown here bears a striking resemblance to the lighthouse at Bridgeport. That the picture shown here is without a title may lead us to believe that it remained unfinished, unsold or perhaps was painted close to his death 1n 1878. This work may have been part of the group of works that were inherited by his granddaughter, Anne Richardson. She had kept a group of his pictures in his house in Ridgefield, Connecticut. After her death, the estate was sold at auction with about a dozen of the paintings.

For more information on Huge, see Jean Lipman, Rediscovery: Jurgan Frederick Huge (1809-1878) (New York, 1973).