References:
Peter Hastings Falk, Who Was Who in American Art: 1564-1975 (Madison, CT: Soundview Press, 1999)
William H. Gerdts, Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, vol. 1 (New York, NY: Abbevile Press: 1990)
William H. Gerdts, Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life 1801-1939 (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1981), pp. 123-125.
William H. Gerdts, For Beauty and For Truth: The William and Abigail Gerdts Collection of American Still Life Paintings (Amherst, Mass.: Amherst College, 1998),
Marc Simpson, The Rockefeller Collection: American Art; at the San Francisco Museums Fine Art (Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco: 1994)
Graham W.J. Beal, American Beauty: Paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1770-1920 (Scala Publishers: 2002)
The first American to specialize in painting roses, George Cochran Lambdin began his career as a painter of genre and Civil War scenes. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of academic figure painter James Reid Lambdin, George Cochran Lambdin and his family moved to Philadelphia in 1837. Lambdin began his training under his father, and around 1855, he studied abroad in several European art academies, including Munich, Paris, and later in Rome. Lambdin painted floral still lifes as early as 1857, but his concentration on the theme began around 1867 when he took up residence at the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York City and became friendly with the esteemed painter John LaFarge. The following year, Lambdin produced several paintings which were widely distributed as colored lithographic prints. The success of that venture, combined with Lambdin's return to the Philadelphia area in 1870, may have prompted his concentration on flower still lifes for the remainder of his career.
Upon his return to Philadelphia, Lambdin took up residence in Germantown, a suburban section of the city known for its commercial nurseries. There the artist maintained a conservatory and a rose garden renowned in his day at his home at 211 Price Street. George Cochran Lambdin is perhaps best known today for his exquisitely drafted still life paintings of roses, still on the vine,
set against dramatic backgrounds of black, mottled white, or sky blue. Still Life with Roses is a superb example of his quintessential subject and is in excellent condition. The painting also features an outstanding period frame. American still-life expert, William H. Gerdts observed that in Lambdin's works:
Lambdin knew his flowers and painted them with such unconscious sureness and accuracy that he allowed himself considerable bravura in his paint handling. As a result, the flowers in his works have vitality from this very dash and verve of painting.¹
Lambdin showed regularly at the National Academy of Design, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Brooklyn Art Association, Boston Art Club, and at the Universal Exposition in Paris, 1867. During the 1870s, many of his rose paintings were reproduced and widely distributed as chromolithographs by Louis Prang and Company. He was elected Academician of the National Academy of Design in 1868, and in 1872, he helped found the Germantown Horticultural Society.
Lambdin's works are housed in important public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA.
¹ William H. Gerdts, Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life 1801-1939 (Columbia & London: University of Missouri Press, 1981) p. 124.
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