Adèle de la Lanceu 1861
Seymour Joseph Guy (American, born England, 1824-1910)
Oil on canvas
Portland Art Museum
I photographed this painting precisely because it is the sort of sentimental Victoriana I would ordinarily avoid. I took a picture of the piece because I wanted to confront it and myself to help shed my prejudices.
I got more than I bargained for.
Out of curiosity, and with few expectations of learning anything, I googled the subject's name. To my surprise, I found an article about Adèle, her family and her husband written by one Diana Bailey Harris. Diana, as it happens, is both the donor who gave the painting to the Portland Art Museum and a relative of Adèle's.
What follows is a version of Diana's article that I edited for the sake of brevity. I recommend following the link to the original publication because there you will find vintage photos of Adèle, her parents and her future husband.
All About Adèle
A large portrait painted in 1861 by noted New York artist Seymour Joseph Guy of Adèle de la Lanceu came to Portlander Diana Bailey Harris from her mother in 1992, but the girl’s story had been lost for decades.
Diana and her sister learned that Adèle had married Thomas Newton Murphy, a veteran of the Civil War. Their eldest son, Charles Frederick Murphy, an attorney and New York state senator, was Diana’s grandfather’s cousin. Charles’ wife Jeanette – who had given Diana’s mother the painting – was active in civic affairs.
Adèle’s father transformed his French name, Juste Le Breton dit La Lancet, into Wright Lance. Born in 1817, he was well-educated and taught school in Canada before moving to New York, where he “engaged in the construction of saw mills.” His September, 1897, obituary stated: Mr. Lance…erected and operated the first steam sawmill in Chateaugay about half a century ago, and…engaged in the lumber business in the Saranac valleys…leaves a widow, Adeline, and nine living children: Julia (b. 1844), Mary Adeline (b. 1845), Harriet Elmira (b. 1847), Edward (b. 1850), Adèle (b. 1854), Abram (b. 1856), Frank (b. 1859), William (b. 1861), and Emma Marguerite (b. 1864).
It turned out that Diana’s great-grandmother, Marguerite de Lance Gregory was Adèle’s baby sister.
Wright and Adeline Lance were not wealthy; his occupation is listed as “sawyer,” “files saws at mill” and “boss filer” in Census Reports. The teenage daughters at home are noted as “tailoress,” “seamstress” and “milliner.” Their mother Adeline must have taught them and made the intricately pleated, eyelet-embroidered dress in the painting.
The artist probably visited Plattsburgh, where the Lances lived, but Adèle would not have posed for the portrait. Like many artists of the time, Guy photographed his subjects and their surroundings, then created the painting in his studio.
The Lance family home was a couple of blocks from Lake Champlain; Guy embellished it with a forest background. Adèle and her Newfoundland likely played and waded along the shore. In the painting, the Newfie eagerly waits for her to throw the red ball far out into Lake Champlain. Adèle was eager, too; she didn’t even change clothes after church. The ring on her finger and exquisite dress tell us that she has made First Communion.
Twelve years later, 19-year-old Adèle married the 28-year-old lawyer Thomas Newton Murphy. Diana found that “At…sixteen…Murphy enlisted…in the Union army…participated in Sherman’s March to the Sea …lost his left arm in the battle of Pine Knob, Georgia…admitted to the bar in 1870…began practicing law in Plattsburgh…married Adèle in 1873.”
He took Adèle 80 miles northwest from a bustling town of several thousand to live in a small village near where he grew up. They had seven children over the next 18 years.
Their house had a separate side entrance for his ground-floor office and a second side entrance to the back stairs. As was customary, Adèle’s bedroom and sitting room were at the top of these stairs. Thomas also bought a farm outside town and brought in a tenant to manage it. An itinerant lawyer who went from town to town about the county, Thomas spent less and less time at home.
He filed for divorce on June 20, 1898, claiming Adèle had committed adultery with four men “at diverse times” and was “a prostitute for pay.” He demanded sole custody of the three youngest children.
Adèle’s great-great-granddaughter Jo Ann sent Diana her typed transcript of handwritten court records. Testimony given by Thomas and the farm tenant must have been have been humiliating, yet Adèle refuted the accusations in court and countered that Thomas was the adulterer.
However, the judge awarded custody to Thomas and decreed that he could marry again, but Adèle could not. Thomas took the children to Michigan, where his mother lived, and married Addie Crandall, the “other woman.” That marriage lasted a year.
He returned to New York with the children. Then, it seems, everyone but Thomas and Adèle tried to disguise the fact of the divorce. Adèle died in 1917 and Thomas in 1929. Their eldest son Charles, who arranged both burials in Plattsburgh, N.Y., ensured they shared the same headstone.
Wright Lance gave the portrait to Adèle; she gave it to Charles and Jeanette; Jeanette gave it to Diana's mother in 1960.
Source:www.antiquetrader.com/articles/building-family-stories-da...
=====================
About the Artist
"Seymour Joseph Guy established a reputation in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century as one of the finest genre painters of children. His primarily cabinet-sized pictures were esteemed by his fellow artists and leading collectors of American art.
He was widely respected for his technical ability and knowledge of the science of painting, but with the emergence of a younger generation of European-trained artists in the 1880s, Guy’s meticulous and smoothly polished scenes of childhood began to fall out of fashion. In recent decades his art and talent have been reappraised by museums, scholars, and collectors of early American art, but up to now almost nothing has been published about his life and career."
If you want to learn more about Guy, follow this link and you'll find a detailed account of his life and his works.
americanartgallery.org/artist/readmore/id/819
Adèle de la Lanceu 1861
Seymour Joseph Guy (American, born England, 1824-1910)
Oil on canvas
Portland Art Museum
I photographed this painting precisely because it is the sort of sentimental Victoriana I would ordinarily avoid. I took a picture of the piece because I wanted to confront it and myself to help shed my prejudices.
I got more than I bargained for.
Out of curiosity, and with few expectations of learning anything, I googled the subject's name. To my surprise, I found an article about Adèle, her family and her husband written by one Diana Bailey Harris. Diana, as it happens, is both the donor who gave the painting to the Portland Art Museum and a relative of Adèle's.
What follows is a version of Diana's article that I edited for the sake of brevity. I recommend following the link to the original publication because there you will find vintage photos of Adèle, her parents and her future husband.
All About Adèle
A large portrait painted in 1861 by noted New York artist Seymour Joseph Guy of Adèle de la Lanceu came to Portlander Diana Bailey Harris from her mother in 1992, but the girl’s story had been lost for decades.
Diana and her sister learned that Adèle had married Thomas Newton Murphy, a veteran of the Civil War. Their eldest son, Charles Frederick Murphy, an attorney and New York state senator, was Diana’s grandfather’s cousin. Charles’ wife Jeanette – who had given Diana’s mother the painting – was active in civic affairs.
Adèle’s father transformed his French name, Juste Le Breton dit La Lancet, into Wright Lance. Born in 1817, he was well-educated and taught school in Canada before moving to New York, where he “engaged in the construction of saw mills.” His September, 1897, obituary stated: Mr. Lance…erected and operated the first steam sawmill in Chateaugay about half a century ago, and…engaged in the lumber business in the Saranac valleys…leaves a widow, Adeline, and nine living children: Julia (b. 1844), Mary Adeline (b. 1845), Harriet Elmira (b. 1847), Edward (b. 1850), Adèle (b. 1854), Abram (b. 1856), Frank (b. 1859), William (b. 1861), and Emma Marguerite (b. 1864).
It turned out that Diana’s great-grandmother, Marguerite de Lance Gregory was Adèle’s baby sister.
Wright and Adeline Lance were not wealthy; his occupation is listed as “sawyer,” “files saws at mill” and “boss filer” in Census Reports. The teenage daughters at home are noted as “tailoress,” “seamstress” and “milliner.” Their mother Adeline must have taught them and made the intricately pleated, eyelet-embroidered dress in the painting.
The artist probably visited Plattsburgh, where the Lances lived, but Adèle would not have posed for the portrait. Like many artists of the time, Guy photographed his subjects and their surroundings, then created the painting in his studio.
The Lance family home was a couple of blocks from Lake Champlain; Guy embellished it with a forest background. Adèle and her Newfoundland likely played and waded along the shore. In the painting, the Newfie eagerly waits for her to throw the red ball far out into Lake Champlain. Adèle was eager, too; she didn’t even change clothes after church. The ring on her finger and exquisite dress tell us that she has made First Communion.
Twelve years later, 19-year-old Adèle married the 28-year-old lawyer Thomas Newton Murphy. Diana found that “At…sixteen…Murphy enlisted…in the Union army…participated in Sherman’s March to the Sea …lost his left arm in the battle of Pine Knob, Georgia…admitted to the bar in 1870…began practicing law in Plattsburgh…married Adèle in 1873.”
He took Adèle 80 miles northwest from a bustling town of several thousand to live in a small village near where he grew up. They had seven children over the next 18 years.
Their house had a separate side entrance for his ground-floor office and a second side entrance to the back stairs. As was customary, Adèle’s bedroom and sitting room were at the top of these stairs. Thomas also bought a farm outside town and brought in a tenant to manage it. An itinerant lawyer who went from town to town about the county, Thomas spent less and less time at home.
He filed for divorce on June 20, 1898, claiming Adèle had committed adultery with four men “at diverse times” and was “a prostitute for pay.” He demanded sole custody of the three youngest children.
Adèle’s great-great-granddaughter Jo Ann sent Diana her typed transcript of handwritten court records. Testimony given by Thomas and the farm tenant must have been have been humiliating, yet Adèle refuted the accusations in court and countered that Thomas was the adulterer.
However, the judge awarded custody to Thomas and decreed that he could marry again, but Adèle could not. Thomas took the children to Michigan, where his mother lived, and married Addie Crandall, the “other woman.” That marriage lasted a year.
He returned to New York with the children. Then, it seems, everyone but Thomas and Adèle tried to disguise the fact of the divorce. Adèle died in 1917 and Thomas in 1929. Their eldest son Charles, who arranged both burials in Plattsburgh, N.Y., ensured they shared the same headstone.
Wright Lance gave the portrait to Adèle; she gave it to Charles and Jeanette; Jeanette gave it to Diana's mother in 1960.
Source:www.antiquetrader.com/articles/building-family-stories-da...
=====================
About the Artist
"Seymour Joseph Guy established a reputation in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century as one of the finest genre painters of children. His primarily cabinet-sized pictures were esteemed by his fellow artists and leading collectors of American art.
He was widely respected for his technical ability and knowledge of the science of painting, but with the emergence of a younger generation of European-trained artists in the 1880s, Guy’s meticulous and smoothly polished scenes of childhood began to fall out of fashion. In recent decades his art and talent have been reappraised by museums, scholars, and collectors of early American art, but up to now almost nothing has been published about his life and career."
If you want to learn more about Guy, follow this link and you'll find a detailed account of his life and his works.
americanartgallery.org/artist/readmore/id/819