A Connection from 1902
While completing the research for Nibbling by the Day, it was discovered to have been prominently featured on page 340 of an article on John Enneking published in 1902.
Painted in 1896, Calf in the Lane must have been renamed Nibbling by the Day, as this is inscribed in pencil on the stretchers and was likely written by Enneking himself. The piece is an excellent, mid-career example by the artist, most likely created in the bucolic setting near his home in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Coincidentally, the painting below it in the article, The Clam-Digger, is an important work for the artist dating from 1892, and is presently owned by Abbot W. and Marcia L. Vose. The Clam-Digger was painted in Duxbury, Massachusetts, where Abbot (Bill) and his twin brother Terry spent their summers. Bill Vose discovered this masterpiece in the late 1970s, recognized the location, and it has hung in a place of honor in their home since that time.
Orphaned as a child, John Joseph Enneking was raised by an aunt in Cincinnati, who encouraged his enrollment in St. Mary’s College where he took a liking to the arts, before joining the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war he moved to Boston, where he studied painting and lithography for a year. Soon after, Enneking moved his young family to Europe in 1872 to pursue his artistic career, a move that would prove both financially and critically successful. Study trips all over Europe took Enneking to the Munich Royal Academy and the Paris studio of Leon Bonnat. Enneking went on to exhibit widely at prominent venues throughout the United States, including the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery, the Boston Art Club, Vose Galleries, and the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915, where he won the prestigious gold medal.
Rittenhouse, Jessie B. “The Art of John J. Enneking.” Brush and Pencil, Sept. 1902, pp. 335 – 345
The Clam Digger
Private collection of Abbot W. (Bill) and Marcia L. Vose
