Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Signed and dated 1887
Oil on canvas
Height 28 1/2" (72.4 cm); width 32 1/2" (82.6 cm) including original inlaid frame
Provenance: James Jeter, Santa Barbara, California; private collection, Tucson, Arizona
James N. Hess (1858 to 1890) was born in Philadelphia and trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, his studies financed by a private benefactor after a childhood illness left him physically impaired. He specialized in animal portraiture and is documented as an early influence on Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859 to 1937), the celebrated African American painter, whom Hess advised as a thirteen year old to pursue animal or landscape painting rather than marine subjects, advice Tanner followed. Hess was featured in the 1886 Pennsylvania Historical Review, which described his studio as containing work bearing "the stamp of originality of conception and marked artistic ability."
This signed and dated 1887 oil on canvas depicting a mule was painted a year before Hess's death at age 32, placing it within the mature period of his short career. Research by Geoffrey Fleming, Executive Director of the Huntington Museum of Art, suggests Hess may have traveled to Lawrence, Kansas in the mid-1870s to study painting and documented western subjects, indicating a range beyond his Philadelphia base. The painting retains its original inlaid frame, which is integral to the work's presentation and period character.
Hess exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was working as an illustrator for the Philadelphia lithography firm George S. Harris and Sons at the time of his death. His short career and small body of surviving work make signed and dated examples uncommon on the market. This painting represents one of the few documented works by an artist whose early influence on Henry Ossawa Tanner gives him a place in the history of American art.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Signed and dated 1887
Oil on canvas
Height 28 1/2" (72.4 cm); width 32 1/2" (82.6 cm) including original inlaid frame
Provenance: James Jeter, Santa Barbara, California; private collection, Tucson, Arizona
James N. Hess (1858 to 1890) was born in Philadelphia and trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, his studies financed by a private benefactor after a childhood illness left him physically impaired. He specialized in animal portraiture and is documented as an early influence on Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859 to 1937), the celebrated African American painter, whom Hess advised as a thirteen year old to pursue animal or landscape painting rather than marine subjects, advice Tanner followed. Hess was featured in the 1886 Pennsylvania Historical Review, which described his studio as containing work bearing "the stamp of originality of conception and marked artistic ability."
This signed and dated 1887 oil on canvas depicting a mule was painted a year before Hess's death at age 32, placing it within the mature period of his short career. Research by Geoffrey Fleming, Executive Director of the Huntington Museum of Art, suggests Hess may have traveled to Lawrence, Kansas in the mid-1870s to study painting and documented western subjects, indicating a range beyond his Philadelphia base. The painting retains its original inlaid frame, which is integral to the work's presentation and period character.
Hess exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was working as an illustrator for the Philadelphia lithography firm George S. Harris and Sons at the time of his death. His short career and small body of surviving work make signed and dated examples uncommon on the market. This painting represents one of the few documented works by an artist whose early influence on Henry Ossawa Tanner gives him a place in the history of American art.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
