Cecilia Beaux (American, 1855-1942) Portrait of Richard Watson Gilder Oil on canvas 32 x 24 inches (81.3 x 61.0 cm) Proclaimed "the greatest woman painter of modern times" by William Merritt Chase, Cecilia Beaux is widely considered one of the finest woman painters active in America at the turn of the century, and is commonly ranked alongside John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt as one of the most significant portrait painters in American history. Beaux was not only technically masterful in her rich, vigorous manipulation of paint and her subtle orchestration of color, but also a keen observer and an innovative designer who could skillfully convey the character and personality of her subjects. Beaux's talents speak for themselves, but her name might never have been in the halls of museums or in art history books had it not been for Richard Watson Gilder and Helena de Kay. Beaux's masterful and harmonious Portrait of Richard Watson Gilder is a replica of the artist's seminal portrait of Richard Watson Gilder from 1902-3 that is part of the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. Beaux created this reductive portrait as a gift for her close friends Richard and Helena, as both a token of affection, and of gratitude for initiating her career. Following Beaux's return from studying in Paris in 1889, her cousin Kate Janvier introduced her to the poet and editor Richard Watson Gilder and his wife, Helena. Gilder was the editor-in-chief of The Century, America's most popular late nineteenth-century literary magazine. "Because of The Century's wide circulation, Gilder's editorial decisions influenced the country's cultural life so profoundly that his biographer, Herbert F. Smith, concluded that the years between 1880 and 1890 should be renamed ‘The Gilder Age'... Gilder's wife, Helena, who studied at Cooper Union and The National Academy of Design, was also an advocate for American painters, especially artists who abandoned Victorian themes in favor of expressive, painterly work. With her encouragement, The Century promoted American realist Winslow Homer...the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens...and a host of others whose careers might have languished without the Gilder's help. Cecilia Beaux, also a beneficiary of their largess, was first featured in The Century's American Artists Series in the September 1894 issue." (A.A. Carter, Cecilia Beaux: A Modern Painter in the Gilded Age, New York, 1995, p. 123) Beaux became grew close to Richard and Helena, and spent a great deal of time at their homes in New York and in Massachusetts, providing her with social and professional connections she could never have achieved on her own. "Beaux wrote that at the Gilders she could take part in a life that ‘vividly joined and disseminated every form of intellectual and artistic activity....Richard and Helena Gilder were complete and firmly defined individuals...In what their marriage meant to the world around them, they were phenomenal." (Cecilia Beaux: A Modern Painter in the Gilded Age, p. 126) HID12401132022 © 2022 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

Unlined canvas. Under UV exam, there appears to be a few spots of inpaint including: a small brushy areas of retouching in the upper left quadrant background. a thin dotted 10 in vertical line of inpaint in the left side of the jacket; and a few small finely applied spots in the left ear and cheek of the sitter. Discolored varnish. Framed Dimensions 37.25 X 29.5 Inches