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From: "J DOT Henry Priebe Jr DOT " root AT bluemoon DOT net
Date: Tue, 23 May 2017 01:16:43 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: (erielack) Smithsonian Field Trip
"LACKAWANNA_MAGAZINE_April1954_LackawannaValleyInness.jpg" - image/jpeg, 2296x1611 (256c)

On Mon, 22 May 2017, Ed Montgomery wrote:

>
> I was called to oversee a field trip to the Smithsonian today. I had the
> opportunity to go to the National Gallery of Art. I knew they had George
> Inness's landscape "The Lackawanna Valley" commissioned by the DL&W in
> 1855. There is quite a story behind the painting that was published back
> in the 50s

There was a two page article in the April 1954 LACKAWANNA MAGAZINE, which
Paul Tupaczewski loaned to me many years ago to scan for the digital magazine
collection.

Here is a JPeg image of the article and I have included the plain text
of the article below for those who don't want to bother going to the photos
page.

Henry

J. Henry Priebe Jr. Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
www.bluemoon.net Internet Access & Web Hosting
www.railfan.net Railfan Network Services

P.S. The "It's" is reproduced exactly as displayed (twice) in the article's
title.


LACKAWANNA MAGAZINE
April 1954, Page 14

"The Story of A World-Famous Painting, It's Unbelievable
Resurrection And It's Final Well-Earned Acclaim"

HANGING in the National Art
Gallery in Washington, D. C., is one
of the outstanding examples of Amer-
ican art. lt came eventually to the
gallery through a circuitous history
from such a beginning that even the
most redoubtable fiction writers
would hesitate chronicle.

The painting is "The Lackawanna
Valley," by George luness. It stands
as one of the earliest examples of art
to come from commercial firms, and
at the same time is a classic example
of the ancient problem of the rela-
tion between the patron and the
artist . . . how much one should dic-
tate and the other acquiesce.

ln 1855, when the picture was
painted, George lnness was a young,
rising and much talked-about artist
in New York. He was 30 years old,
married and had a family to support.
Commissions for oil paintings did not
come along every day even for such
a budding genius as George lnness.

The patron in the case of "The
Lackawanna Valley" was George D.
Phelps, first president of the Dela-
ware, Lackawanna and Western Rail-
way. He had succeeded his brother,
John Jay Phelps, who was president
of the Lackawanna and Western, the
company which had taken over the
original Ligetts Gap Railroad and
which when consolidated with the
Cobb.s Gap Railroad became the
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western.

George Phelps was a hard-working
railroad president, and at the same
time was considered something of a
patron of art. He thought the Lacka-
wanna roundhouse at Scranton would
be a subject for a fine oil painting.

Despite the successes he had en-
joyed, Inness at this time was almost
broke. So when President Phelps de-
scribed to him what he wanted and
then offered $75 for the job, Inness
accepted.

Apparently the artist didn.t trust
the railroads of the 5O.s because he
journeyed to Scranton by stagecoach,
a four=day trip each way. Unfor-
tunately, on the last leg of the trip
to Scranton someone stole his bag
and he had to write to his wife for
funds.

Mr. Phelps meant to use the paint-
ing in an advertisement for the rail-
road, and therefore had very definite
ideas on what the picture should
contain.

In the first place, there was only
one track entering the roundhousc,
but President Phelps wanted to show
four. Inness rebelled. His artistic
sense would allow no such deviation
from fact. The president was adam-
ant, however, easing his conscience
by explaining that the road eventu-
ally would have four tracks there.
There was a family to support, so the
tracks were painted in.

The first canvas was turned down
because it did not show all four lo-
comotives the railroad owned. An-
other stormy session resulted. Inness
said he would paint in one and in-
dicate the others by wisps of smoke.

Phelps agreed, but maintained his
principles as the patron by demand-
ing that the letters "D.L.&W." appear
on the tender of the locomotive.

This was too much for the delicate
sensibilities of the artist and he was
ready to throw the whole job out as
a poor deal. The president was adam-
ant and Inness was equally firm in
his stand. Mrs. lnness, however, was
the deciding factor. She reminded
her husband of his family obligations
and that the $75 was more important
than a few letters.

The picture, which took so much
time and resulted in these several
bitter protestations and compromises
by both parties, is simply described
by the National Gallery of Art:

"View of a wide, flat valley with
a broad band of gray undulating
hills in the background. The round-
house is secn in the middle distance
to the right of the center and from it,
tracks wind into the foreground and
across the left of the picture. In the
immediate foreground at the left a
foot path leads toward the right, at
the side of which a boy with a straw
hat and red vest lies, as he watches
a train, making its way around the
bend at the right."

Whether or not the painting ever
served its original purpose as an ad-
vertisement isn.t known. There is
nothing to indicate that it was, nor
that it wasn.t used. In any event,
however, the picture disappeared for
the next 30 years.

The next appearance of it is the
sort of thing that fiction writers
dream of but seldom realize. George
Inness and his wife were browsing
through an old second hand shop in
Mexico City, when amid all the deb-
ris of the shop he came upon an oil
painting in a broken gilt frame.

He turned it over and took it out
to the light. The owner of the shop
put on his best sales talk. He didn.t
know anything about the painting,
he couldn.t find any name on it. He
took it in with a lot of other office
furnishings. But he was willing to sell
it cheap. It was a handsome picture,
he thought, and besides the frame was
still good. It could be fixed easily.

So lnness bought the painting.

As he walked out of the shop he
turned to his wife and said, "Do you
remember, Lizzie, how mad I was
because they made me paint the
name on the engine?"

He kept the painting for the rest
of his life. George lnness died in
August, 1894.

The painting was inherited by his
daughter, Mrs. Jonathon Scott Bart-
ley, who kept it for some 50 years.
Early in the summer of 1944 it again
turned up, this time in the M. Knoed-
ler and Company gallery in New
York. The price being asked at the
time was low, especially considering
the fact that the painter, George In-
ness, was one of the more famous
American landscape artists. His
works were the pride of many of the
leading American art galleries.

The painting came to its final dig-
nity through the generosity of Mrs.
Huddleston Rogers, who bought it
and presented it to the National Gal-
lery of Art, where it hangs today just
to the right of the main entrance.



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