Haiti Painting Donated to Auction for Earthquake Relief

Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an early 20th-century oil painting by American landscape artist Louis Aston Knight, will be auctioned on February 16 to raise funds for earthquake victims. [Credit: Bonhams via ArtDaily]

NEW YORK — Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an oil painting by landscape artist Louis Aston Knight (1873-1948), will be auctioned to raise funds for the devastated Caribbean capital. The work of art was donated by an anonymous collector and will be up for bid at Bonhams fine art auction house on February 16. 

Painter Louis Knight was born in Paris, where he studied under Robert-Fleury Lefebvre and his father, celebrated American artist Daniel Ridgway Knight. The early 20th-century artwork depicts a view of the now-devastated capital city of Port-au-Prince; the cathedral and National Palace are visible in the distance on the right. The Palace was destroyed in 1912 and rebuilt from 1915-1934, only to be destroyed once again in the recent disaster. 

“When the owner of this painting heard about the disaster in Haiti she asked us to sell it on behalf of a charity currently working to help the people of Haiti," said Giles Peppiatt, Director of Topographical Pictures at Bonhams. 

The money raised by the sale will go to AmeriCares, a nonprofit global health and disaster relief organization currently working in Haiti. The painting is estimated to fetch $6,000-9,000 for earthquake relief.

[Source: BusinessWeek]

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Haiti Painting Donated to Auction for Earthquake Relief

After Two Centuries, the Mysterious Location of a Constable Painting is Identified

Compare the top painting - The Stour Valley and Dedham Church (ca. 1814) by John Constable - with the bottom landscape - a recent photo of the field identified in Constable's painting. [Photo Credit: The Independent]

ENGLAND — Nearly two hundred years after it was painted, the mystery of the exact location where John Constable (1776-1837) created his beloved work The Stour Valley and Dedham Church has been solved. Although the landscape has changed drastically since the early 1800s, a researcher for the National Trust, a conservation organization in the UK, was able to use historic maps and reference points to pinpoint the location shown in the painting.

Constable, who was born in Suffolk county England, once said "I should paint my own places best," and that he did. The artist became known primarily for his landscape paintings of the area surrounding his home, Dedham Vale, so much so that the area was eventually nicknamed "Constable Country". Fans of the Romantic painter have identified the exact locations pictured in a majority of Constable's rural paintings, but a handful - including The Stour Valley and Dedham Church, until recently - remain elusive to this day.

The Stour Valley and Dedham Church was painted around 1814. Dramatic changes to the landscape over the many years subsequent made finding the spot where Constable stood to paint his masterpiece that much harder. But Martin Atkinson, property manager of the National Trust and Constable enthusiast, has finally solved the mystery. He believes the painting shows Langham church, Dedham church, Fen Bridge and the bend in the River Stour, all of which sit within the picturesque Dedham Vale Area of Natural Beauty.

"It's great to see where an old master once stood - and be inspired by the same views as them," Atkinson told The Press Association. "When I discovered that I had worked out the location where Constable painted this particular masterpiece, I couldn't believe it. All the pieces of the jigsaw finally fitted together."

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After Two Centuries, the Mysterious Location of a Constable Painting is Identified