J. Ambrose Prichard (American) 1858 – 1905
An Afternoon on the Rhone, oil on canvas, signed/dated 1886/inscribed “Avignon” lower right, 40″ x 55″ canvas, 50″ x 65″ frame
Estimate: $9500. Offers are invited.
Please email an offer to purchase or a request for more information to thistlefineart.info@gmail.com.
Very good condition. Some crazing (cracks in pigment), but the paint is stable with only a few tiny flakes of missing paint (requiring very close examination). There has been a professional repair of a puncture in the upper right hand corner. This is a seminal painting by an important artist whose work has not been adequately researched.
Provenance: A Newbury Street Gallery, pre-1978 (gallery label verso); A Marblehead Estate, 1978 to 2008; Skinners Auctioneers 2008. (The painting was consigned to Skinner’s for a May 2008 auction with an estimate of $15,000 to $25,000 [the high auction price for the artist is $29,375 for a painting also sold by Skinners*] but the reserve was not met. A private purchase from the consignor was negotiated in late 2008.
J. Ambrose Pritchard
b. April 11, 1858, Boston, Massachusetts
d. February 5, 1905, Roxbury, Massachusetts
Pritchard began his art training at the Massachusetts Normal
Art School, and in 1882 he went to Paris and enrolled at the
Académie Julian under Gustave Boulanger and Joseph
Lefebvre. He stayed for seven years and exhibited at the Paris
Salons of 1887 and 1888. He returned to Boston in 1889 and established himself as a landscape painter. He took a studio at
175 Tremont Street, and during the summer he painted on Cape
Cod in the town of Brewster. His landscapes done in oil and
watercolor were praised by critics for their portrayal of the
“cheerful gladsome side of nature.”
Pritchard was a long-standing member of the Boston Art Club
as well as the Boston Society of Watercolor Painters. He exhibited at the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association in,
1881 and at the Boston Art Club from 1881 until 1904. In 1903
Beacon Galleries in Boston held a major exhibition of 180
paintings which sold out in only four days. Two years later,
while working in his studio on Tremont Street. Pritchard suffered a stroke and died shortly afterwards.
Obit., Boston Evening Transcript, (Feb. 6, 1905); BAC; BCD; WWAA.
Illustration p. 49 – Credit Vose Gallaries of Boston – WEBSITE WWW. V O S E G A L L E R I E S . C OM.
* The painting sold in 2005 by Skinners can be see online at https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2269/lots/396. That painting was of similar condition as the one in this listing.
Also by this artist:
(Sold for:$29,375 – March 04, 2005)
Images often do not adequately represent quality or condition. Reflections off glass or varnished surfaces sometimes alter color and clarity. All listings are fully guaranteed to be as described, however, and may be returned for a full refund (for any reason) within 30 days of purchase.
Purchase prices are inclusive of shipping/handling/insurance within the continental United States. Prospective buyers should email for shipment to other locations.
