GROWING | PORTRAITIST | LANDSCAPIST | GALLERY |
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Genre Drawings |
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Other Images Temporary not available.
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In his sketchbook of 1855-56, Junius not only drew detailed
face studies in preparation for painted portraits, but also informal sketches of family
members as seen in casual moments of their daily lives: father Seymour catching flies and
brother Henry reading. To some extent these sketches are also likenesses, but likenesses
in action. Junius' purpose, apparently, was to improve his general drawing skills and to
explore new expression. No known paintings are based on these genre drawings. After his 1858 visit to New York City where he met Jerome Thompson, the popular painter of landscapes with genre figures, Junius produced more genre drawings. His production culminated in ninety-four exceptional figure studies in pen, pencil and brush in a small sketchbook dated ca. 1860-81 (Sketchbook 3). Perhaps the finest genre drawings in this sketchbook are those of Junius' five-year-old sister-in-law, Emma Spencer, and that of the seated, bearded man reading a newspaper, probably Junius' twenty-five year old brother-in-law, Platt R. Spencer, Jr. Very likely Junius drew these in the spring or summer of 1861 when he and Sara helped Platt and Persis, now in very poor health, move from Oberlin back to their homestead in Geneva, Ohio. |
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