Le Contrabandier Aragonais, 1882
Oil on panel 15 1/2” x 10”
William Turner Dannat (1853 – 1929), American
Acquired 1998
Adelson Gallery, New York
William Turner Dannat was born into a rich American family who moved to Europe when he was 12 years old. He left architecture school to study painting from a Hungarian named Mihaly Munkacsy. Dannat’s first entry into the prestigious Paris Salon won a medal. The next year, he won again for the Contrabandier Aragonais and following that for La Femme en Rouge. Tall, blonde and handsome, he was a hot property in Paris and the subject of magazine articles and gossip columns. He fenced, boxed, raced fast cars, and owned the first Daimler (predecessor of the Benz and later Mercedes Benz) in France.
I really fell for Dannat’s oil study of a very young man pouring wine down his throat from a flask, preparing for the risky crime he was about to commit. He’s quite dressed up for the heist, but then, he’s a contrabandier, not merely a thief. I was unable to discover anything about the last 12 years of Dannat’s life. His last address was Monaco. His obituary was scant.
Oil on Canvas 25 1/8 x 39 x 1/8”
William Morris Hunt (1824-1879), American
Acquired October 2001
Spanierman Gallery, New York
William Morris Hunt was influenced by the Barbizon School (circa 1830 to 1870), which was named after a French village and emphasized realism and naturalism in art. It arose after the more formal Romantic period. Hunt studied in France and brought the atmospheric style of the Barbizon School back to America. Upon returning to the Boston area, he had a specially built van in which he traveled and painted through New England.
Hunt lectured and fought for a more poetic approach to painting. When I learned that the Spanierman Gallery in New York would be displaying Summer Twilight, I rushed up there to see it—all the while hoping no one would beat me—and then buy it. For the four young figures in the painting, frolicking and soaking in the cool water must have been a delight, given that in 1877 their break likely followed a day of child labor. In the words of a fine American curator, Summer Twilight “takes you someplace.”
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