Lot 129: RICHARD GIBSON WEDDERSPOON, (AMERICAN 1889-1976), "BENEATH THE WILLOW"

RICHARD GIBSON WEDDERSPOON
(american 1889-1976)
"BENEATH THE WILLOW"
Signed 'WEDDERSPOON' bottom right, inscribed and dated 'Beneath The Willow 1917' verso, oil on canvas
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5cm)
in a Badura frame with incised signature.
provenance:
The artist.
By family descent.
Bianco Gallery, Buckingham, Pennsylvania.
Private Collection, Florida.
exhibited:
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, '23rd Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity', February 13 - March 30, 1919.
literature:
Pennsylvania Impressionism , Edited by Brian H. Peterson pub. James A. Michener Art Museum, Bucks County, PA and University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2002. pg. 279. Cat. No. 195 (illus.).
, Edited by Brian H. Peterson pub. James A. Michener Art Museum, Bucks County, PA and University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2002. pg. 279. Cat. No. 195 (illus.).
NOTE:
The following letter to the artist from Daniel Garber will be included in this lot:
"1819 Green St.
February 20, 1919
Dear Wedderspoon,
Yours of 13th at hand. A very good letter putting your case very well and really answering your own questions between the lines.
The points Mr. Young takes are well taken and they are in the main true. The one point I would make is...look over the list of "Dealer fed and nourished" painters and see what you find. I could throw some good examples "before your eyes" of men who have died young artistically although they physically live in opulence. I take great pleasure in some of your sentences. They repeat the recurring hopes of us all. Your point of view seems straightforward. Well then, wishing to stand on your own merits, preserve your independence, paint what you please, what interests you, in the way you see and feel it, in the size canvas you want to use. These things I venture to intimate to you would be interfered with by Mr. Young and let us chalk him up to represent any dealer. I have said nothing of Mr. Yound because it is your own good interest in this matter that concerns.
Now then if he will take and sell any of these efforts in a commission as great as 33 1/3% that is all right, but to get that out of sales you are sure we also may make would be too much for me. His intentions are honest. He should make money if he is to especially exploit, but do you want to be especially exploited when you know there is a fair chance for every decent painter in this country.
This advising is ticklish business but I owe it to you and therefore give it. Macbeth and others have approached me at different times but while I have always been glad to give them anything I could spare, I have never wanted to give up what I felt was independence and the pleasure of playing the game for myself.
I've about covered the ground but wish you had also, other advice, as my own may be a trifle biased.
Sincerely yours,
Daniel Garber"