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Advice from over 180 years
THE AUCTION
About the Vose | Barridoff Auction
VOSE’S HISTORIC GALLERY SPACE
We invite you to visit our Newbury Street brownstone, where you will find the largest inventory of American realist paintings in New England. All four floors are devoted to the display of fine art, including living and dining rooms furnished with antiques to provide a home-like setting for viewing works of art.
CLIENT SERVICES
Whether you are a new buyer, a seasoned collector, looking to sell artwork, or someone in-between, we provide over 170 years of garnered experience in the field along with many art services tailored to both private individuals and institutions alike. We provide opportunities for consignment, written appraisals for insurance purposes, and offer advisory services ranging from framing, installation, artwork care, home visits, as well as research inquiries within our specialization.
Consignments
Vose Galleries specializes in American paintings and drawings from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. We are always interested to view work for possible sale or consignment. Before contacting Vose about your artwork, please fill out our Consignment Submission Form found on our Consign page with as much detail as possible. Once the form is submitted, we will get back to you as soon as we can.
If you have any further questions about selling artwork, please call or email us at:
[email protected] | 617-536-6176
Appraisals
What about that painting in your grandparent’s attic?
The fee for a written appraisal for insurance starts at $250. For more than one painting or a personal visit by a gallery representative the fee increases. To begin the process, any appraisal materials, including photographs and all pertinent information (see list of questions in Sell Your Painting), should be sent with attention to Courtney Kopplin or e-mailed to [email protected]. The time frame for the completion of the appraisal depends on the number of paintings and the research required. If an artist’s work falls beyond our usual area of expertise, then we will try to refer you to another specialist.
If you have any further questions about appraisals, or to arrange an appointment, please e-mail the gallery at [email protected] or call 617.536.6176.
Art Advisory
At Vose Galleries, our art advisory services are tailored to meet the unique needs of each client—whether you’re beginning a collection or refining an established one. We provide thoughtful, personalized guidance on acquisitions, placement, and collection development, with a focus on quality, historical significance, and long-term value. Our team is also available for in-home consultations to assist with curating, installation, and lighting, helping ensure your artwork is displayed to its best advantage within your space and budget.
Estate Representation
Vose Galleries has played a major role in representing the estates of established artists as well as re-introducing forgotten artists of the early to mid-1900s. We are actively seeking to purchase or consign entire estates or large groups of works by American artists. Please contact Carey Vose at [email protected] for further information.
Below are a few examples of artists’ estates which Vose has handled over the past 90 years. Please click on each artist to read more about how we came across the estate, and enjoy viewing photographs and letters from the Vose archives:
Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847-1919)
Vose Galleries’ long association with Ralph Albert Blakelock began in 1905: the first time Robert C. Vose saw a painting by the artist at an exhibition in New York. Robert was so impressed that he bought the very next painting by Blakelock he saw. Six years later, around 1911, Vose met Blakelock and his family personally. At the time, having been institutionalized in 1899, Blakelock was confined to Dr. Packer’s Sanitarium in Riverdale, New York. R.C. Vose first visited the family in Brooklyn, New York and then accompanied Mrs. Blakelock to the asylum. It was the first time in several months that Mrs. Blakelock had seen her husband, and was grateful to Robert for the financial advice he provided along the journey. On his return to Brooklyn, Robert bought a coat for Blakelock’s son, and the artist’s wife remained grateful to the generous Mr. Vose, exchanging numerous letters with him throughout the remainder of her life. The son who received the new coat even ended up working at Vose Galleries for a couple of years. Since the early 1900s Vose Galleries has been fortunate to handle numerous works by R.A. Blakelock, a man who R.C. Vose called “my favorite American artist, dreamer, musician, poet on canvas.” In 1981, Vose Galleries put together an exhibition of upwards of 60 of his beautiful drawings.
John F. Carlson (1875-1947)
Vose Galleries represents the estate of John F. Carlson, a landscapist of immense importance and influence who was an early developer of the art movement in Woodstock, NY. Carlson was a truly outdoor painter who sought to give each canvas a mood, an overall tone or feeling of the moment. His book, Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting, first published in 1928, remains an important text on the subject to this day. Vose first exhibited his work in 1978, the first time his art had been available to the public in thirty-five years. Since then there have been three more Carlson exhibits at Vose Galleries, in 1980, 1982 and again in 2010.
Letter from John F. Carlson to Mr. Vose, 1926
John J. Enneking (1841-1916)
Paintings by John Joseph Enneking are not new to the Vose Galleries. During his lifetime, the artist frequently exhibited with us, and Robert C. Vose served as the agent for the family in liquidating the Enneking estate. Over the years, recognition for the artist grew at a rate which R.C. Vose Jr. had not seen equaled in his forty years plus with the gallery. During Vose Galleries’ memorial exhibition in 1917, twenty-seven landscapes were hung, sold out, re-hung with an equal number, and sold out again. The Vose family has remained devoted to John Enneking; with six solo shows since the artist’s death in 1916, and most recently in 2009.
Catalogue cover for John J. Enneking exhibit at Vose Galleries, February 1962
Gertrude Fiske (1878-1961)
Vose Galleries sold its first painting by Gertrude Fiske in 1917, a self-portrait entitled “Study in Black and White,” in a show of Boston women artists. Following her passing in 1961 her nephews and niece did a remarkable service to the art world by arranging a memorial exhibition of her work at the Concord Art Association in 1962, a retrospective at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, in 1966, a New York City show at the Schoelkopf Galleries, and finally a return to her native Boston in 1969 with a one-woman show at Vose Galleries. Since that time, the estate of Gertrude Fiske has been represented by Vose Galleries. Another one-woman show was organized with the invaluable assistance of her heirs in 1987. Fiske’s work remains a perennial favorite of ours at the gallery.
Newspaper clipping from January 1930, showing Gertrude Fiske when she was named to the Massachusetts State Art commission. She is depicted working on a portrait at her studio in the Riverway. Fiske was the only woman named to the commission.
Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1931)
Robert C. Vose began handling the work of Philip L. Hale in 1924; at that time, the artist was one of the better painters of the Boston School. In 1966 Vose Galleries gave him a one-man show consisting of oils, pastels and drawings from a Concord, Massachusetts collection. During that period the Boston School was becoming extremely collectible. In 1988, with Boston School paintings in high demand, Vose was able to mount another exhibition with the never-waning enthusiasm of the same Concord collector and the artist’s daughter.
Aldro T. Hibbard (1886-1972)
Vose Galleries enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Aldro T. Hibbard. He first exhibited here in 1919, when his painting Snow Blanket was singled out for special mention: “If you have got to have snow around the house, this is just the kind to have; it fits the earth so snugly, discloses such interesting places and looks so genuinely beautiful.” From then on the Vose family admired and promoted Hibbard’s work, through the height of the twenties, the difficult days during the Depression, through to the present day. Vose Galleries has enjoyed a three-generation relationship with the Hibbard family, from the artist to his daughter and granddaughter, and held two very successful exhibits showcasing his beautiful, rich paintings in 1999 and again in 2008.
Hibbard never shied away from the difficulties of painting in cold weather; to the contrary, he seemed to revel in the challenge.
William Morris Hunt (1824-1879)
In a tale that has long been passed down through the Vose Family, William Morris Hunt stopped at Seth Vose’s shop in Providence, Rhode Island to buy some artist’s materials. While waiting for them to be wrapped, he parted the curtains closing off a rear gallery. When Seth reappeared, Hunt rushed up to him excitedly exclaiming, “Where did you get them? How did you get them? These are the first Barbizon paintings I have seen in this country beside those I brought over myself!” This shared enthusiasm for the work of the Barbizon artists led Hunt and Seth Vose to a similar group of acquaintances. The collectors often listed as having been infected by Hunt’s enthusiasm were without exception clients of Seth Vose-who had formed several Barbizon collections in Providence. 130 years after that first meeting the family of Seth Vose and the family of William Morris Hunt were able to present The Return of William Morris Hunt, featuring works from the estate of the artist.
Cover of an exhibition announcement for Mary Macomber’s work at Vose Galleries, 1913
Mary L. Macomber (1861-1916)
In 1901 Robert C. Vose visited Waverly, MA to look at Mary Macomber’s work and bought five paintings on the spot. Macomber was the subject of a 1913 one-woman show at Vose Galleries, evidence of the long-standing and warm relationship that bloomed between herself and Robert C. Vose. The Vose history files contain correspondence between the artist and dealer spanning beyond just the years we served as her exclusive agents. Her graceful subject pictures were very popular and the art magazines were constantly seeking them for reproduction in their articles about her. In poor health for much of her life, Mary Macomber passed in 1916. After her untimely death Vose Galleries became the representatives of her estate.
Advertisement for Vose Galleries’ 1977 exhibition
Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966)
Vose Galleries first exhibited the works of Maxfield Parrish in 1968, shortly after the artist’s death. Composed of paintings primarily from the estate of Maxfield Parrish and the Betsey P.C. Purves Trust, the exhibition toured the country to near unanimous acclaim. Maxfield Parrish Jr., the executor of the estate and the artist’s son, wrote hopefully to R.C. Vose Jr in May of 1966, “I begin to almost believe that Dad will in time be canonized.” While we are certain that the masterful quality of Parrish’s work would have elevated him to the lofty place he now occupies, Vose Galleries is proud to have been early advocates for such recognition.
Mary Bradish Titcomb (1858-1927)
Vose Galleries’ 1998 exhibition Mary Bradish Titcomb and Her Contemporaries: The Artists of Fenway Studios, 1905-1939 reintroduced a remarkable talent and an integral part of Boston’s cultural legacy. The exhibition accompanied a fundraising effort led by Vose Galleries to cease the development of a shopping complex that, if constructed, would block the northern light from reaching the artist studios. Fortunately, this effort was successful, and we thank the family of the artist and more than twenty collectors for amassing the estate of the artist to assist with the effort. We at Vose Galleries are proud to remain vocal advocates for all artists of Fenway Studios, and especially the women artists of the Boston School.
Theodore Wendel (1857-1932)
Through a close association with the artist’s family, Vose Galleries was privileged to represent the estate of Theodore Wendel. Works by Wendel are hard to come by, and we thank the artist’s son, Daniel S. Wendel for entrusting us with the lyrical paintings of one of the first few American painters to adopt Impressionism. Following the 1976 show at the Whitney Museum in New York City, interest in the artist swelled, and we at the gallery were pleased to see the long awaited recognition of a masterful painter.
Letter from Daniel Wendel to Robert Vose, 1979
Charles H. Woodbury (1864-1940)
The 1978 exhibition of Charles H. Woodbury’s estate at Vose Galleries served to reintroduce the art world to a man with a truly staggering resume of prizes and awards. The 1978 catalogue included a poignant and insightful essay from the artist’s son, David O. Woodbury. This close working partnership between the Woodbury family and Vose Galleries would result in another exhibition just two years later. Vose Galleries continued to regularly exhibit his work, in 1978, 1984, in a joint show alongside works by George Loftus Noyes in 1999, and most recently in Fall 2002.
Commissions
Vose Contemporary is pleased to present its online contemporary commission division. We have carefully chosen well-known professionals who paint in a variety of styles, each using only the finest materials and craft to ensure a timeless piece. Each artist has an impeccable record of quality and client satisfaction.
We are eager to introduce you to these talented artists and help you to make decisions and arrangements regarding your portrait. Many of our artists have developed techniques that streamline the process, and are mindful of your time constraints.
We invite your inquiries. Please contact Carey L. Vose at [email protected] for more information.
Click on the thumbnails to see biographies and examples of each artist’s work.
