EDWIN LORD WEEKS
American, 1849–1903
Jerusalem from the Bethany Road
Signed Edwin L. Weeks
Oil on canvas
39 x 60 inches (99 x 152.5 cm)
Framed: 52 x 76 inches (132 x 193 cm)
Painted circa 1873-1874, this remarkable painting is one of the most important and best known of the artist's early career. In 1872, Edwin Lord Weeks made his first trip across the Atlantic, "spending some time in Paris before traveling to the Near East in the company of a friend, the illustrator A.P. Close, who fell ill and died while on the trip. A good number of dated drawings and watercolors by Weeks survive from this journey, which included stops in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine" [Ulrich W. Hiesinger, ed., Edwin Lord Weeks: Visions of India (Exhibition catalogue), Vance Jordan Fine Art Inc., New York, 2002, p. 13].
One of the drawings made by Weeks on this first trip to the Middle East is dated Jerusalem, Oct. 8 (1872). It depicts a grove of olive trees and the walls of Jerusalem as they appear on the left of the composition in the present painting. This preparatory drawing, Jerusalem Trees, was exhibited at the 1976 Edwin Lord Weeks exhibition at the University Art Galleries, University of New Hampshire.
Weeks returned to Boston from this trip in the spring of 1873 and began to work on a series of paintings derived from his sketches and studies, likely including Jerusalem from the Bethany Road, which "were scheduled to be shown at the fall opening of the Elliot, Blakeslee & Noyes Gallery, one of the city's principal commercial galleries. By 1874 Weeks had gained the full attention of Boston art critics and in May and June of that year, there appeared numerous short notices of paintings he either exhibited at the Boston Arts Club or offered for sale through the trade" [Heisinger, ed, p. 14].
The first owner of this painting, The Rev. Dr. Edward Lord Clark, was an Egyptologist, in addition to being a clergyman, and author of several books including Israel in Egypt: Egypt's Place Among the Ancient Monarchies [Nelson & Phillips, New York, 1874].
Provenance
Galleries of Elliot, Blakeslee & Noyes, Boston, circa 1873-74
Sale, Art Galleries of Noyes & Blakeslee, Exhibition and Sale of Pictures by E.L. Weeks, Boston, February 19-20,
1878, possibly lot 44, as A Rest under the Olive Trees, Palestine
Rev. Dr. Edward Lord Clark (1838-1910), Boston and New York, by 1879
Estate of Dominique Silberman, Balmville, NY
Mrs. Estelle Schneck, Brooklyn, NY, c. 1971 (acquired from the above)
Jerry Schuster, New Windsor, NY (acquired from the above)
Private Collection, Long Island, NY (acquired from the above, thence by descent to the present owner)
Literature
Clara Erskine Clement and Laurence Hutton, Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works, Boston, 1879, vol. II, p. 341
John Denison Champlin, Jr., Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, New York and London, 1888, vol. IV, p. 416
Theodore Child, "Edwin Lord Weeks from the Pen of an Eminent Art Critic Resident in New York," The Art Interchange,
New York, vol. XXX, no. 4, April 1893, p. 96
Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, Pittsburgh, PA, September 30, 1897, p. 2
John Rummell and E.M. Berlin, Aims and Ideals of Representative American Painters, Buffalo, NY, 1901, p. 75
The Kansas City Times, Kansas City, MO, November 18, 1903, p. 6
New-York Daily Tribune, New York, November 18, 1903, p. 11
San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, November 18, 1903, p. 2
Washington Times, Washington, DC, November 18, 1903, p. 9
Holyoke Daily Transcript, Holyoke, MA, November 19, 1903, p. 8
G. Derby and J.T. White, The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, New York, 1904, vol. 12, p. 505
Cf. The Art of Edwin Lord Weeks (1849-1903) [Exhibition catalogue], University Art Galleries, University of
New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 1976, p. 21, no. 23, for listing of the preparatory drawing Jerusalem Trees