Goose Girl (No. 2)
Signed and dated lower right: W. L. METCALF PARIS 1886
Description
Willard Metcalf stayed in France for five years, initially studying at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1883-1884, and later traveling throughout the French countryside to paint in the artists’ colonies of Grez-sur-Loing and Giverny. The village of Grez-sur-Loing, located south of Paris, was visited by Metcalf in 1884-1885, and was a popular spot for American, British, and Scandinavian painters. Like many of those inspired by the region’s proximity to Fontainebleau, where the Barbizon style of landscape painting arose, Metcalf’s time at Grez resulted in imagery of peasant life and a muted, atmospheric quality of light, facets seen in Goose Girl (No. 2). Dated 1886 and inscribed Paris, the painting was likely begun during his stay and completed once he returned to the capital.
While abroad, Metcalf sent work home for exhibition, and Goose Girl (No. 2) was shown at the Ninth Exhibition of the Society of American Artists in New York in the spring of 1887. Two years later, he opened a solo exhibition at the St. Botolph Club in Boston, in which Goose Girl (No. 2) was also featured.
Provenance
Miss Laura Sears, Boston, 1887
Metropolitan Gallery, New York
Judge Gromer, New Rochelle, New York
Estate of Judge Gromer to family by descent
Private collection, Houston, Texas
Lagakos-Turak Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
To private collection, Villanova, Pennsylvania, by 1998
Inscriptions
Labels
- (handwritten label on portion of original stretchers) Miss Sears / 32 Gloucester St. / Boston, Mass.
- (handwritten label on portion of original crossbar) #8 / SYN
- (on portion of original stretchers) Exhibition, Soc. (?) Artists 1887 / Title, The Goose Girl / Artist, Willard L. Metcalf / Owner, (blank) Price, $2500
- (handwritten label on portion of original stretchers) The Goose Girl / by / Willard L. Metcalf / Signed + Dated Paris 1886 / Exhibited Boston Society / Of Fine Arts 1887 / Collection Laura Sears / 32 x 32 inches
- (on foam core backing) Spanierman Gallery, New York, New York / Willard Metcalf / “The Goose Girl” / Oil on Canvas / Size: 33 ¼ x 33 ½ inches / Signed lower right, WL Metcalf 1885 (sic) / SN 90-C 61
- (on foam core backing) Lagakos-Turak Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- (on foam core backing) Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York, New York / Exhibition / Willard Metcalf; Yankee Impressionist / May 8 – July 12, 2003 / Cat. #8
Exhibitions
- Ninth Exhibition, Society of American Artists, New York, New York, April 25 – May 21, 1887, no. 96
- Exhibition of Paintings by W. L. Metcalf, St. Botolph Club, Boston, Massachusetts, March 18 – April 1, 1889, no. 28
- Exhibition of Paintings by W. L. Metcalf, Rowland’s Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, early-mid April, 1889, no. 28
- Paintings by Willard L. Metcalf, J. Eastman Chase Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, January 1891
- Willard Metcalf (1858-1925): Yankee Impressionist, Spanierman Gallery, New York, New York, May 8 – June 28, 2003, no. 8
Literature
Willard Metcalf (1858-1925): Yankee Impressionist (New York: Spanierman Gallery, 2003), illus. p. .83
Condition
Very good. The painting is lined, probably with wax, onto newer tension bolt stretchers, with portions of the original stretchers containing old labels affixed to the newer stretchers. There are scattered clusters of dashes and specks of in-paint along the girl’s cape and hood, and around her hands, some clusters of specks and dashes in the single goose and the gander at right, and similar clusters of specks and dashes among the reeds along the near and distant banks of the river at left. There are very thin in-painted lines of in-paint in the water in the center of the composition and some small spots of in-paint scattered in the foreground. Total in-paint is not more than 5% of the canvas area, and probably less than that.