Portrait of Luman Reed (After A.B. Durand)

 

James David Smillie

  1833 - 1909 (biography)

1894  

etching 

5 3/4 x 4" platemark 

pencil, lower right 

proof 

pencil dated "Ap. '94" beneath signature; pencil inscribed in lower left "J.D.S. imp"; plate incribed "A. B. Durand" and "J. D. Smilllie"; pencil annotation in lower left sheet corner (see description below) 

Witthoff 70; NYPL 76 

fine cream wove 

i/ii 

commissioned by John Durand for the "Life and Times of A. B. Durand" but not used 

4045 

$900.00 

Working proof from Smillie's private collection, for a portrait of the noted art patron Luman Reed done after the oil painting by Asher B. Durand. Intended for publication in Life & Times of A.B. Durand, it was rejected by Durand himself as "the plate did not please him" (see full annotation below). Despite his opinion, the image is a stunning example of Smillie's expertise with the etching tools in capturing the mood of a person and scene. Smillie traced the image on gelatine on February 13, 1894, and the plate was bitten with nitric acid - his first use of the method - on April 2.

Lower left sheet corner by Smillie's hand: "1 in Ex. / Portrait of Luman Reed / Etching for John Durand / for Life & Times of A.B. Durand. / The plate did not please him / and it was not used. This is the only pf. I have and I do not know of any others." Luman Reed was a successful New York merchant and great patron of the arts, who was inducted into the New York Sketch Club as an honorary member.