Lot 373: Louis Rémy Mignot (American, 1831-1870), Rainbow over a Lake in the Hudson River Valley, Possibly Close of a Showery Day, Lake George,

Louis Rémy Mignot (American, 1831-1870)

Rainbow over a Lake in the Hudson River Valley, Possibly Close of a Showery Day, Lake George
Monogrammed and dated "M 62" l.c.
Oil on canvas, 16 x 24 in. (40.6 x 61.0 cm), framed.
Condition: Lined, craquelure, mounting bubbles l.l., minor retouch, subtle varnish inconsistencies.

Exhibitions: Probably New York, Snedicor's Gallery, May 27-June 2, 1862, no. 15 (as Close of a Showery day. Lake George, 16 x 24 in.).

Provenance: Probably at sale, New York, Henry H. Leeds & Co., June 2, 1862, no. 15 (as Close of a Showery day. Lake George, 16 x 24 in.); The estate of Elizabeth A. Straus, New York and Maine.

N.B. Hudson River School painter Louis Rémy Mignot was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He began his art studies in the Netherlands, where he met fellow student Eastman Johnson in 1851. By 1855 Mignot had returned to the United States became active in the art world, exhibiting at the National Academy of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. In 1858 he accompanied Frederick Church to South America, a trip that would be pivotal for his career. Later that year, he moved into the Tenth Street Studio alongside Church, Sanford Gifford, and other Hudson River School painters, and he was elected to the Century Association and to Associate membership in the National Academy of Design. Mignot also joined the "Artists Excursion" sponsored by the B & O Railroad to paint areas newly opened via the railroad.

Mignot's early landscape paintings were criticized for showing too much European influence. He then refined his technique to be more in keeping with his Hudson River School colleagues, working towards a purely American style. (1) The work at hand shows the quiet repose typical of Mignot's mature style. There is a somber quality of the autumn landscape that may reflect the opening hostilities of the Civil War and the artist's subsequent departure for Europe, where he would remain for the rest of his life. (2)

We would like to thank John W. Coffey for his help with this attribution and cataloguing of this lot.

1. Manthorne, Katherine E, with John W. Coffey, The Landscapes of Louis Remy Mignot, A Southern Painter Abroad (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press for The North Carolina Museum of Art, 1996), p. 49.
2. Ibid, p. 134.