Full Details for Lot 535

Richard Clague
(French/New Orleans, 1821-1873)

"Louisiana Bayou at Dusk"

oil on canvas
Initialed "R.C." lower left.
Period gilt and stenciled framed.
10" x 14", framed 20-1/2" x 24-1/2"

Provenance: Sold in these Galleries, May 16, 1998, lot # 407

Literature: Toledano, Roulhac, "Richard Clague, 1921-1873)", exhibition catalogue, New Orleans Museum of Art, 1974.

Notes: Richard Clague, Jr. was born in Paris and baptized at the St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter. His French father made his fortune in shipping, and his mother Marie-Delphine-Justine de la Roche was a French Creole born in New Orleans. Consequently, throughout his lifetime, Clague traveled with ease between France and Louisiana.
As an artist, Clague was academically trained in Europe, and became recognized as bringing the French Barbizon tradition of landscape painting to south Louisiana. The French tradition dictates painting outdoors in nature, a method known as "plein aire", to accurately represent the landscape and times of the day. Instead of the Barbizon forests, Clague focused on the bayous, farms, fishermen's cabins and waterways of south Louisiana.
In "Louisiana Bayou at Dusk", Clague captured the dramatic and colorful moment of the sun setting over the bayou. As night falls, a cabin nestled among the Spanish moss draped cypress trees and small boats docked by the shore can be seen.



Estimate $50,000-80,000

**Previously restored, cleaned and relined. Small areas of inpainting at mid right in tree and mid center in trees.