By: Hannah Brown, Frankfort State Journal
An original Paul Sawyier painting has emerged from the woodworks about 300 miles away.
Shawn Lipe, of St. Louis, Missouri, operates two businesses — The Refind Room (www.therefindroom.com), which offers designer consignment support and sales for private estates that are either moving or downsizing, and Woodard Lipe Fine Art and Auction Gallery, which provides a white glove representation for the finer art and collections for its clients. Lipe said the Sawyier print was found while working with one of his clients.
"It came from a client that has passed it down through the family as the original owner," Lipe said. "We are at a really interesting point in history where we have a rare opportunity to see and rediscover art that has been locked away in private hands. We can really add it to our knowledge, because as the baby boomers are downsizing, so many items are turning up."
Lipe said he reached out to the Kentucky Historical Society to seek more information about the piece and he was put in touch with William H. Coffey, president of Paul Sawyier Galleries (www.paulsawyiergalleries.com).
Coffey sent Lipe the following information about the watercolor painting, which is titled "Music Hall, St. Louis":
"In the 1930s, Dr. Williard Jillson interviewed family and friends of Paul Sawyier. Based on Jillson's notes, Arthur Jones wrote 'The Art of Paul Sawyier.' Footnotes included 'another indication of Sawyier's early status was the inclusion of his work in an exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Mrs. Frank George Staff, of Frankfort, advised that agents of the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 arranged, with her husband and her, to exhibit Paul Sawyier's portrait of her husband Frank George Staff at the St. Louis Fair in a 'Kentucky Collection.'
"The Sawyier-Wingate family scrapbook mentions 'watercolors and an oil painting were noted in the book published by the Kentucky Governor's Commission on this state's involvement at the World's Fair, Kentucky at the World's Fair (1904).' Sawyier original works of art were also included in the Kentucky Hall at the 1894 Chicago World's Fair.
"Sawyier's formal art training was in portraitage from William Merritt Chase and Frank Duveneck, and is known to (also) have created portraits in oil and pastel. Today, Sawyier is mainly known for his watercolor and oils of scenes in Frankfort, Elkhorn Creek and the Kentucky River. The C.F. Brower & Company, his agent in Lexington, sold over 500 of his originals. Only two Lexington scenes have been found and this is the only St. Louis scene.
From: "Original Paul Sawyier Painting Discovered in St. Louis; Auction to Take Place Nov. 23" by Hannah Brown, The State-Journal, Frankfort , KY, November 15, 2024, https://www.state-journal.com/news/original-paul-sawyier-painting-discovered-in-st-louis-auction-to-take-place-nov-23/article_1aff1584-a2ae-11ef-994c-d3720762f348.html
