Three Graces with Large Canary

American School, probably New England. Unsigned, ca. 1830-1850.
Oil and watercolor on Bristol artist board, (stamped l.l). 14” x 17 ½”, 18 ½” x 23” (with frame).
Excellent condition, vibrant colors, minor toning. In a period lemon-gilt frame.
Provenance: Collection of Dr. Donald Moylan.
This yet unidentified artist has eight known works, to include this example, Three Graces with Canary which are all considered as “memorial pictures”. The location of three: The New Bedford Memorial, in the permanent collection of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, ex-collection, Jean Lipman; an untitled memorial held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, ex-collection Maxim Karolik (56.438); Woman and Children under a Canopy with Flags, given by Mrs. Frederick Thurston Mason in memory of her sister, Anna Phillips Stevenson to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania in 1914 (1914-365); the New Hampshire Memorial, purportedly discovered in Chocorua, New Hampshire and now owned privately in Boston; and the Boston Memorial, the whereabouts of which are currently unknown, likely housed in a private collection.
For illustrations of two of the works mentioned above, please see M. & M. Karolik Collection of American Water Colors & Drawings, 1800-1875, Volume II (Boston, Massachusetts: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1962), p. 199, cat. no., 1200, fig. 296, and Jean Lipman, Primitive American Painting (New York City, New York: Oxford University Press, 1942), plate 31.