William Tylee Ranney (1813–1857)

Radish Girl

Details

William Tylee Ranney (1813–1857)
Radish Girl
bears inscription 'Ranney 1840' (lower right)
oil on canvas
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.)
Painted circa 1845.

Provenance

Charles L. Vose, circa 1845.
(Possibly) Sale: National Academy of Design, New York, The Paintings to be Sold for the Benefit of the Ranney Fund, December 1858, lot 153.
(Possibly) Mr. Hurlburt, acquired from the above.
John Astin Perkins, Dallas, Texas
William and Helen Watt, Fort Worth, Texas, acquired from the above, circa 1960.
By descent to the present owners.

Literature

New York Herald, April 23, 1845, p. 3.
Anglo American, May 17, 1845, p. 93.
M.B. Cowdrey, National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1826-1860, vol. 2, New York, 1943, p. 88.
F.S. Grubar, William S. Ranney, Painter of the Early West, Washington, D.C., 1962, p. 26, no. 7.
L. Bantel, et al., Forging an American Identity: The Art of William Ranney, with a Catalogue of His Works, Cody, Wyoming, 2006, pp. 17, 213, no. 11.

Exhibited

New York, National Academy of Design, National Academy of Design Annual Exhibition, April 17-July 3, 1845, no. 56.

Brought to you by

William Haydock

whaydock@christies.com 212-636-2140

Lot Essay

When William Tylee Ranney's Radish Girl was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1845, the reviewer for the Anglo American praised, "a pretty idea very well carried out; the wretched poverty of the drapery, the broken straw hat, are both in good keeping." (Anglo American, May 17, 1845, p. 93) Linda Bantel explains, "The straw hat may have been a prop in Ranney's studio, for a tattered one is also depicted on the head of his Match Boy [Private Collection], painted in 1845 and exhibited at the National Academy in 1846." (Forging an American Identity: The Art of William Ranney, with a Catalogue of His Works, Cody, Wyoming, 2006, p. 17)

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