Images(3)

Professor Outland's Flowers

Artist R. W. Outland (?-?)

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Richmond

MediumPaint, metal foil, and glass

DimensionsPrimary Support: 13 7/8 x 9 7/8in. (35.2 x 25.1cm) and Framed: 15 1/2 x 11 1/8 x 3/4in.

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1935.508.1

DescriptionA vase of flowers set on a slab, with a label below it. The background is solidly painted white. The vase and slab are blue and criss-crossed with black lines. The foliage is blue in color. (It is uncertain whether this was intended or whether an original, greener color later turned bluish.) Some blooms are red, others a gold color; one bloom is clear (unpainted glass, with only the metal foil showing through), and one seems partly clear with purplish-brown detailing.

The 1-inch, gilded, Torus-molded frame appears to be original.
Label TextThe artist's printed label on the backboard explains some of the materials and steps necessary to create a "pearl" painting, by which he meant this type of reverse glass painting backed with crinkled sheets of metal foil. Today, such pictures are usually called tinsel paintings. Thin, transparent films of paint allowed the sparkling foil to show through them, giving the finished image a brilliant effect. (The white background of this example was purposely made opaque to enhance its contrast with the design.) Some examples of pearl painting date as early as the 1830s, but such pictures were most popular in the mid-nineteenth century. Birds and flowers were favorite subjects.
InscribedFound in 2010 in the object file (but since stored with AARFAM backboards with other items removed from the framing of this piece), presumably removed from the backboard or the back of the frame, is a red-bordered, water-adhesive label inscribed in dark brown ink in upright lettering: "No. 501.10/Bowl of Flowers/by/R. W. Outland". Also on the same label, in graphite, is: "508.1" and, crossed out, "501.10".

Also see "Marks," where one handwritten label was recorded because it appeared alongside printed ones.

MarkingsAdhered to the inside of the back of the glass primary support, at bottom center, immediately beneath the composition, is a press-printed label; it reads: "PROFESSOR OUTLAND,/OF RICHMOND, VA., (OLD MARKET,)". N. B. This was apparently cut out of a larger, lengthier label like the one pasted to the backboard starting with the words "A RECIPE." See further below.

The backboard consists of two separate, thin pieces of wood, one measuring 9 3/4" x 11 1/16", the other measuring 9 3/4" x 2 15/16". Judging by a label remnant and adjoining wood edges, the two pieces were originally separate and were not cut apart, nor did they break apart; they were laid side by side to fill the back of the frame.

Adhered to the larger piece of the wood backboard are several separate labels, one of them hand-inscribed in dark brown ink in script, the others all press-printed.

The largest press-printed label on the larger of the two pieces of backboard reads: "A RECIPE/FROM/PROFESSOR OUTLAND,/OF RICHMOND, VA., (OLD MARKET,)/PEARL PAINTING/NAMES OF PAINTS [missing]/Chrimnitz White,/Prussian Blue,/Ivory Black,/Pink Madder[.]" Below this is: "Black Aspha[missing]". Below this is: "Black Grounds are made of Asphaltu[missing]/Chrimnitz White./To make Green, mix very little Prussian [missing]/To make Purple, mix very little Prussian Blue [missing]/To make Pale Blue, mix Prussian Blue with C[missing]/To make Lead Color, mix Ivory Black with Ch[missing]/To make Orange, mix Red and Yellow./To make Pink, mix White and Red./All Paints must be mixed with Japan Varnish and Spirits of Turpentine./RECIPE FOR SHADING./To shade Green, mix Prussian Blue with the Green./To shade Yellow, mix Burnt Umber with Crimson Lake./To shade Red, mix Ivory black with Crimson Lake./To shade Blue, mix Ivory Black with Blue./To shade Orange, mix with Burnt Umber./Red and Yellow should be put on tolerable thick. Deep Blue and/Purple should be put on thin./R. W. OUTLAND./C. W. [missing] Printer, Pearl Street, Richmond, Va." In the margin below the press printed part of the label is a handwritten line in script in dark brown ink that is mostly illegible; it appears to end with " . . . hin[g?] $5".

N. B. Part of an (apparently unrelated) newspaper clipping remains pasted OVER the larger Outland label. The newspaper clipping may be a continuation of the "detective story" mentioned further below; it describes two men shooting at one another following a robbery, and it incorporates the proper names "Henry Leland" and Major Cabot." Why it would have been pasted over the artist's label is unknown.

The hand-written label is pasted beside and parallel to the Outland label. It is badly torn and mostly illegible. Discernible lettering reads: "4/5/1/½/1/1/[missing]/1 do [missing]/1 do p[missing]/Present to [missing]/by her [word unclear; rest of line missing]/the ab[missing]/[word unclear - com[missing]/all the [missing]/By e[nop?; rest of line missing]/to en [ney?]/[line crossed out]".

Below the larger Outland label is a remnant of a press-printed label reading: "[missing]W. S[Y?]NDBERG & CO./. . . N & ORNAMENTAL/. . . GILT [M]OULDINGS/. . . LASS [missing] RAIT & PICTURE FRAME[S?]/. . . CTERERS./. . . 9./Brushes [etc.?]". N. B. This label is pasted OVER an apparently unrelated newspaper clipping that includes a Richmond, Virginia, undertaker's ad and, above it, a notice ending "Collector of Delinquent Taxes."

A newspaper clipping was once adhered to the backboard. Four remnants of it remain but have fallen off or been removed and are now stored with the two pieces of the backboard (the smaller of which retains part of the same clipping), along with other framing materials that were removed from the object. The remnants, titled "Scrofula of the Lungs," bear a testimonial to the effectiveness of a medicine called Swift's Specific, written by T. J. Holt, Montgomery, AL. A newspaper story about detectives also appears in the same clipping. CWF librarian Juleigh Clark determined 4/15/2010 that the newspaper clipping was taken from the RICHMOND [Va.] DISPATCH for 27 April 1887, p. 2.

Found 2010 in the object file (but since re-stored with AARFAM backboards), is a press-printed label that presumably was removed from either the backboard or some component of the housing. (However, if the former, there is now no clear indication of where it was originally positioned.) It is torn, darkened, and only partly legible. Discernible lettering reads: "WILLIAM SATTLER/[line illegible]/PAINTS, OILS, [remainder of line illegible]/AND/ARTISTS' MATERIALS./ WHOLESALE AND RETAIL./[first part of line illegible] 132, MAIN STREET,/[first part of line illegible], Richmond, Va."

Rockefeller's catalogue sheet states: "Sticker on back of stretcher reads (in type) 'R. W. Outland.'" This sticker appears to be missing as of 4/8/2010.

ProvenanceFound in Petersburg, Va., by Holger Cahill, who acquired it on behalf of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, CWF's source.