The Approaching Storm
Framed: 42 1/2 × 52 3/4 inches (107.95 × 133.99 cm)
- 126
Possibly Exposition des Œuvres de N. Diaz de la Peña à l’École nationale des beaux-arts, l’École nationale des beaux-arts, Paris, 1877, no. 111, as Les Grès; effet d’orage or no. 112, as L’Orage en plaine.
Winslow Homer and the Critics: Forging a National Art in the 1870s , The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 18-May 6, 2001; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 10-September 9, 2001; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, October 6, 2001-January 6, 2002, (Kansas City only), hors cat.
Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet , The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 19, 2013-February 9, 2014; Saint Louis Museum of Art, March 16-July 6, 2014, no. 43, as The Approaching Storm.
Adolph Thiem (1832-1923), San Remo, Italy, and Berlin, by June 2, 1881;
Purchased from Thiem by Boussod, Valadon et Co., Paris, stock book 10, no. 15481, as Paysage, June 2-20, 1881 [1];
Purchased from Boussod, Valadon by Knoedler and Co., New York, stock book 3, no. 3467, as Paysage, August 28, 1881-January 23, 1882 [2];
Purchased from Knoedler by Horatio Victor Newcomb (1844-1911), New York, January 23, 1882-1891;
Trustees of H[oratio] Victor Newcomb [ General Wager Swayne and James A. Howes], New York, 1891-1903 [3];
Purchased at his estate sale, Valuable paintings and water colors to be sold at unrestricted public sale by order of the executors and trustee of the estates of the late Clarence King, William H. Fuller and Theodore G. Weil, the trustees of H. Victor Newcomb, and to close an estate represented by Zabriskie, Burrill and Murray, attorneys , American Art Association, New York, March 12-13, 1903, lot 156, as Landscape, by John Andrew Hoagland (1871-1942), New York, 1903-April 26, 1905 [4];
Purchased from Hoagland by Scott and Fowles, New York, in half-shares with Knoedler and Co., New York, stock book 5, no. 10709, as After the Storm, April 26-May 17, 1905 [5];
Purchased from Scott and Fowles by James Jewett Stillman (1850-1918), New York, after May 17, 1905-March 15, 1918 [6];
Inherited by his son, Charles Chauncey Stillman (1877-1926), Cornwall, NY, 1918-April 14, 1926;
Purchased from his sale, American, Barbizon and Dutch Paintings from the Collections of Mr. J. J. Albright, Buffalo, N.Y., H. E. Farrell, Houston, Texas, Chas. D. Morgan, Paris France, WM. H. McGee, New York, Frederick Rider, New York, H.L. Warner, Cleveland, Ohio, Geo. Blake Dexter, Boston, Mass., James Stillman, New York, Sold by Order of his Son, C.C. Stillman , Sale #2056, Anderson Galleries, New York, April 14, 1926, lot no. 34, as Coming Storm, by Scott and Fowles, New York, possible stock no. 735, April 14, 1926-January 28, 1931;
Purchased from Scott and Fowles, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931.
NOTES:
[1] See “Galerie Boussod, Valadon Stock Books, Livre no. 10, 1877-1882,” The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Dealer Stock Books, page 172, row 7, stock no. 15481, as Paysage.
[2] See “Painting stock book 3: 1-4368, 1875 December-1883 December,” Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, M. Knoedler and Co records, page 154, row 13, stock no. 3467. While Boussod, Valadon listed the date they sold the painting to Knoedler as June 20, 1881, Knoedler did not enter the painting into their stock book until August 28.
[3] Horatio Victor Newcomb was forced to resign as president of Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1881 due to poor mental health. By 1891, the courts appointed General Wager Swayne and James A. Howes as the trustees of his estate; see Bryan S. Bush, The Men Who Built Louisville: The City of Progress in the Gilded Age (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2019), 92-93.
[4] See “J.a. Hoagland, 16,000” inscribed in the annotated sales catalogue in the collection of the Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, https://archive.org/details/b1496861/page/n99/mode/2up.
[5] A stock book for Scott and Fowles cannot be located. Knoedler bought a half-share in the painting from Scott and Fowles in April and sold their share back to the company in May. See “Knoedler and Co. Records,”,” The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Painting stock book 5: 8800-12652, 1899 April-1911 December, page 107, stock no. 10709, as After the Storm. See also small, faded adhesive label with black ink typewriter inscriptions on painting’s verso: “10709”. This probably means that Scott and Fowles found a buyer for the painting by May 1905. See also correspondence from Stevenson Scott, Scott and Fowles, New York, to Harold Woodbury Parsons, NAMA art advisor, February 2, 1931, NAMA curatorial files, where Scott says that shortly after his purchase of the painting from Hoagland, he sold it to Stillman. He does not give a precise date.
[6] See correspondence from Stevenson Scott, Scott and Fowles, New York, to Harold Woodbury Parsons, NAMA art advisor, February 2, 1931, NAMA curatorial files.
“Oils and Water Colors Sold: King, Fuller, Weil, and Newcomb Collections at Auction-- Incidents of the Evening,” New York Times 52, no. 16,594 (March 13, 1903): 5.
“Many Pictures at Auction: Landscape by Virgile secured for $16,000 at Mendeissohn Hall,” New York Times 52, no. 16,595 (March 14, 1903): 9, as Landscape.
“Some Recent Art Sales,” Brush and Pen 12, no. 1 (April 1903): 76, as Landscape.
“Auction Sales of Paintings, 1900-1903,” American Art Annual 4 (1903-1904): 54, as Landscape.
Catalogue of Valuable Paintings and Water Colors to be sold at unrestricted public sale by order of the executors and trustee of the estates of the late Clarence King, William H. Fuller and Theodore G. Weil, the trustees of H. Victor Newcomb, and to close an estate represented by Zabriskie, Burrill and Murray, attorneys (New York: American Art Association, 1903), as Landscape.
Arthur Hoeber, The Barbizon Painters: Being the Story of the Men of Thirty (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1915), unpaginated, (repro.), as Landscape.
Probably “Stillman Art Appraised,” American Art News 17, no. 28 (April 19, 1919): 1, as Landscape with Figure.
American, Barbizon and Dutch Paintings from the Collections of Mr. J. J. Albright, Buffalo, N.Y., H. E. Farrell, Houston, Texas, Chas. D. Morgan, Paris France, WM. H. McGee, New York, Frederick Rider, New York, H.L. Warner, Cleveland, Ohio, Geo. Blake Dexter, Boston, Mass., James Stillman, New York, Sold by Order of his Son, C.C. Stillman (New York: The Anderson Galleries, 1926), 15, (repro.), as Coming Storm.
“Half-Million for Art: A Rembrandt in New Purchases for Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star 51, no. 156 (February 20, 1931): 3.
“Kansas City Gets $1,000,000 Art Here,” New York Times 80, no. 26,690 (February 20, 1931): 24.
“Nelson’s Museum Gets Scores of Old Masters,” Jefferson City Post-Tribune 65, no. 350 (February 20, 1931): 2.
“Nelson Trust Pays Million for Art,” Jackson, MS, paper (February 20, 1931), clipping, scrapbook, NAMA Archives, vol. 1, 49.
“Museum Accessions,” American Magazine 22, no. 4 (April 1931): 297.
“Gift to Nelson Gallery: Sir Joseph Duveen Presents Carpeaux’s ‘Crouching Venus’,” Kansas City Star 51, no. 198 (April 3, 1931): 1, as Coming Storm.
“New Nelson Art Treasures To Be Shown at Dinner: Annual Trustees Party at Art Institute Tomorrow Night,” Kansas City Journal-Post 77, no. 300 (April 3, 1931): 8, as Coming Storm.
“Dine with Art Trustees: Institute Board Bids Others to Annual Meeting Tonight,” Kansas City Times 94, no. 81 (April 4, 1931): 2.
“In Gallery and Studio,” Kansas City Star 51, no. 262 (June 6, 1931): E.
“What to See In Kansas City: A Guide to Principal Points of Interest Presented in the Style of A Baedeker,” Kansas City Star 52, no. 101 (December 27, 1931): 3C, as Coming Storm.
“Nelson Gallery of Art Special Number,” Art Digest 8, no. 5 (December 1, 1933): 21, as Coming Storm.
“The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City Special Number,” Art News 32, no. 10 (December 9, 1933): 28, 30, as Coming Storm.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 136, Coming Storm.
Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts , 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 26, as Coming Storm.
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri , vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 258, as Coming Storm.
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 205, as The Approaching Storm.
“Know Your Museum Tour: ‘Up in the Clouds’,” Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (June 2003): 7, as The Approaching Storm.
Pierre Miquel and Rolande Miquel, Narcisse Diaz de la Peña: monographie et catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint (Paris: ACR Édition, 2006), 253, as Paysanne, Nuages, terrain marécageux, chênes à gauche, au loin collines basses et boisées.
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 117, as The Approaching Storm.
Alice Thorson, “Nelson’s ‘Impressionist France’ offers an insider’s guide to a country in transition,” Kansas City Star (November 8, 2013): page number unknown.
Alice Thorson, “A Journey in Art and France,” Kansas City Star, no. 54 (November 10, 2013): D2.
Simon Kelly and April M. Watson, Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet, exh. cat. (Saint Louis, MO: Saint Louis Art Museum, 2013), 154-55, (repro.), as The Approaching Storm.
Catherine Futter et al., Bloch Galleries: Highlights from the Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2016), 36, (repro.), as The Approaching Storm.
Simon Kelly, “Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña, The Approaching Storm, 1872,” catalogue entry, and Mary Schafer, “Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña, The Approaching Storm, 1872,” technical entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, ed., French Paintings, 1600–1945: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2021), https://doi.org/10.37764/78973.5.514.5407.
