Alfred George Stevens (1817-1875)

Alfred George Stevens
Study after Parmigianino painting 
Vision of St Jerome during the Sack of Rome
ca. 1844-54
oil on panel
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Alfred George Stevens
Half-length Study for Caryatid
ca. 1847
drawing
Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham

Alfred George Stevens (born, Blandford Forum, Dorset, 31 December 1817 - died, London, 1 May 1875) – English sculptor, painter, and designer, the son of a housepainter.  With the assistance of the local clergyman, who recognized his talent, Stevens was sent to study in Italy in 1833, at the age of 15, and remained there until 1842.

– Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists

Alfred George Stevens
Lower Limbs of Ornamental Figure
(cartoon for dining room mural in Dorchester House, London)
ca. 1860
oil on canvas
Victoria & Albert Museum

Alfred George Stevens
Head and Arms of a Figure
(cartoon for dining room mural in Dorchester House, London)
ca. 1860
oil on canvas
Victoria & Albert Museum

Alfred George Stevens
Judgement of Paris
(cartoon for dining room mural in Dorchester House, London)
ca. 1860
oil on canvas
Victoria & Albert Museum

Alfred George Stevens
Magog thrown into the Sea
(cartoon for dining room mural in Dorchester House, London)
ca. 1860
oil on canvas
Victoria & Albert Museum

Alfred George Stevens
Figure Group
(cartoon for dining room mural in Dorchester House, London)
ca. 1860
oil on canvas
Victoria & Albert Museum

Alfred George Stevens
Design for a Decorative Panel with Dolphins
1868
oil on canvas
Victoria & Albert Museum

Alfred George Stevens
Design for a Decorative Panel with Flaming Urn
1868
oil on canvas
Victoria & Albert Museum

Alfred George Stevens
Design for a Decorative Panel with Cornucopias
1868
oil on canvas
Victoria & Albert Museum

Alfred George Stevens
Design for a Decorative Panel with Female Heads
1868
oil on canvas
Victoria & Albert Museum

Alfred George Stevens
Design for a Decorative Panel with Male Heads
1868
oil on canvas
Victoria & Albert Museum

Alfred George Stevens
Design for a Decorative Panel with Bearded Male Heads
1868
oil on canvas
Victoria & Albert Museum

Alfred George Stevens
Reclining Figure
(possibly a study for wall decoration, Christ Church, Marylebone)
before 1875
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Alfred George Stevens
Kneeling Youth bending a Bow
(study for dining room mural in Dorchester House, London)
ca. 1860
drawing
Tate Gallery

John La Farge (1835-1910) as Collected in Boston

John La Farge
Study for Decorative Panel
ca. 1875-1900
watercolor
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Study for Stained Glass Window
ca. 1875-1900
watercolor
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Study for Skylight
ca. 1875-1900
watercolor
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Peonies Blowing in the Wind (window)
1886
glass and lead
(created for London studio of Lawrence Alma-Tadema)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Fish and Flowering Branch (window)
ca. 1890
glass and lead
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Butterflies and Foliage (window)
1889
glass and lead
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

"John La Farge was the eldest child in a family of urbane, affluent French immigrants who had earlier settled in New York City.  He was born in 1835, and his education was thorough, with attention to literature, French, and Roman Catholicism.  He received drawing lessons from his grandfather and training in watercolor technique from an unknown English artist.  Initially, though, he saw his artistic practice only as an avocation, a diversion during his teenage years at Mount Saint Mary's College in Maryland and Saint John's College in New York.  Afterwards, he studied law in New York City, while experimenting with oil painting."

"By 1856, however, La Farge had left for Paris, where his family connections helped to secure his introduction to that city's elite literary and artistic circles.  Indeed, his later career would be marked by its preoccupation with sometimes esoteric intellectual and aesthetic matters.  While abroad, he traveled in northern Europe, copied the Old Masters, and spent a few weeks in the studio of Thomas Couture.  The illness of his father, however, necessitated his return to the United States.  After briefly taking up the study of law again in 1857, he rented a studio (which he maintained for the rest of his career) in New York's Tenth Street studio building, where he met the building's architect Richard Morris Hunt.  This was the likely impetus for La Farge's decision in 1859 to travel to Newport, Rhode Island, and study painting with the architect's brother, William Morris Hunt."

"La Farge married Margaret Perry in 1860, and for most of the rest of his career, his family life was centered in Rhode Island.  In this seminal period of the late 1860s he cultivated an interest in Japanese art and explored a highly personal style of still-life and plein-air landscape painting.  His wide interests eventually led him to innovations in other media as well.  By 1875, for example, he was working in stained glass, and a year later, he directed the decorative program for Trinity Church, Boston, designed by the architect H.H. Richardson.  La Farge became a leader in the mural movement, and his commissions for churches, government buildings, and opulent private homes were a welcome source of income in later years.  This work usually kept him in Boston or New York, however, separated from his family.  . . .  Nearly always in need of money to pay the many employees required for his glass and mural projects, he found that his writing helped cover these mounting bills.  He was also known as a lecturer on art matters, although this great variety of activities became increasingly taxing in his final years.  He continued to take on large commissions, however, even as his fragile health and fiscal insolvency became critical."

 – from the artist's biography published in the Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

John La Farge
Mural Design - Angels representing Adoration
ca. 1890-1900
watercolor
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Mural Design - Angels representing Praise
ca. 1890-1900
watercolor
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Mural Design - Angels representing Thanksgiving
ca. 1890-1900
watercolor
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Mural Design - Angels representing Love
ca. 1890-1900
watercolor
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Angel and Magdalene
ca. 1890
watercolor
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
The Three Wise Men
1878
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Woman bending down Branch
ca. 1881
oil on canvas
(study for Cornelius Vanderbilt house, New York)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Moonlit Seascape
ca. 1883
watercolor
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston