Lot 264: William Coventry Wall (1810 - 1886) portrait

William Coventry Wall (1810 - 1886)

portrait of a mackerel

Signed "W.C. Wall" lower left, oil on canvas, framed.

20 1/4 x 12 1/2 in.



PROVENANCE:

Ed O'Brian, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Frank W. Schornagle Sr. and Josephine Schornagle, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Frank W. Schornagle II, Green Tree, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, Ohio Linda Lape, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
note:
THe fish painting descended to the current owner from Ed O'Brian, a grocer in the Greenfield neighorhood. O'Brian delivered groceries to the Wall home, and would often include complimentary fish to serve as models for th painter. Wall's demands from his models were very specific, and O'brian diligently strove to find a fish worthy of the artist's brush and canvas. The efforts spanned years, until one day Wall's son Alfred asked Ed why he never charged the family for the fish. Alfred informed him that his father was no longer using fish as a subject matter - he had moved on to photography, and to commissioned paintings of historical events and local homes and landscapes - and that Ed should stop bringing the free mackerel. When Wall died in 1886, Alfred presented Ed O'Brian with two of his father's fish paintings. While grateful for the gift, Ed was frustrated to find that the paintings bore no resemblance to any of the fish he had delivered.