AFTER WILLIAM MCGREGOR PAXTON (American, 1869-1941). TEA LEAVES, bears signature and dated 1912 lower left. Inscribed "Preusser" on reverse. Oil on canvas - 33 1/2 in. x 28 1/2 in. Estimate $3,000-5,000
NOTE: This painting and another version of the same were compared side-by-side in October 1981 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Tea Leaves", given to the museum by George A. Hearn in 1910. Doreen Bolger Burke, then Assistant Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Met brought together William Gerdts, H. Barbara Weinberg (both then at CUNY), Robert Douglas Hunter (founder of the new "Boston School" and student of R.H. Ives Gammell - who was also consulted), and Susan Faxon-Olney, then Director of the University Art Museum in Durham, NH, to study the three paintings.
This version, signed "Paxton" bottom left and dated 1912, was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. William Myers (Isabelle), probably in Chicago, while he was President of the Snap-On Tool Co. in Wisconsin. It descended in the family and is being sold by the Estate of Marty Leggette, Washington, DC.
The second related version had been attributed to Frank Benson, and was unsigned; it had been purchased from Kurt Stern, NY, and was in a private collection.
Both versions bear differences in composition, size and scale from each other as well as from the painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's holdings.
Not lined; craquelure pattern. UV: Uneven varnish, old restoration to face and arm of seated figure, area to right of seated figure, and some in table cloth. Signature does not fluoresce.
