WHITE, Stanford (1853-1909), American, Water Color

Artist: Stanford White (1853-1906) American

Title: "Villeneuve-Les-Avignon" (City of Avignon, France)

Date: August 2-13, 1878 ¹

Medium: Water Colour

Materials: Water Colour on Paper

Markings: Signed, Lower Left Corner

Dimensions: 10-1/8” x 13-½”

Framed: Yes, within Stanford White’s original Designed Frame. The Artwork has remained within the original frame when acquired by Mr. Prince and Mr. Hemphill, Jr.;

Inventory No: NAPT.1999.000029

Provenance: Neal Prince Trust u/a/d 10.18.1999

Mr. Neal A. Prince

Mr. Neal A. Prince and Mr. Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr.

Roy Davis Gallery, 231 East 60^th Street, New York, New York 10022

Provenance: This item was purchased from Roy Davis Galleries, 231 East 60^th Street, New York, New York 10022

Provenance: Source documentation for the Fine Arts Appraisal for Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr., May 12, 1964, Page 11/13

Footnote: Provenance is fully noted within Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. (a/k/a Burt) insurance policy executed by Neal A. Prince in 1964 and is filed with the Smithsonian Institute American Archives in Box 6, in Folders 13-18.

Footnote¹: Source authenticating that Mr. White was in the City of Avignon, France from August 2-13, 1878, along with Mr. Charles McKim. In a letter that White made evident to his family, that this area was architectural richness, oenoloical delight, and feminine pulchritude:

“At Beaune, besides the beauty of the town itself, we came across two very attractive and inseparable things, viz. good wine and pretty women…The town is still encircled by its old walls, crowned with machicolations and guarded by round towers….The day all through was of the most perfect description and we arrived safely at Avignon (which towered up from the river like a rock) in the evening , found a very good hotel, had a most excellent dinner and a fine old bottle of Hermitage…Avignon was the residence of the Popes for two hundred years and has the largest and most grandiose medieval castle in the world……” – Page 54-55, from the book STANFORD WHITE’S NEW YORK, by David Garrard Lowe, ©1992. Doubleday Publishers 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10103. ISBN 0-385-26016-4

Stanford White (1853-1906) American

Mr. Stanford White was born into a life of wealth and privilege on November 9th, 1853. He was a talented and versatile draftsman who in 1880, joined Charles Follen McKim and William Rutherford Mead in founding McKim, Mead and White, which soon became the most prominent architectural firm in the country. Mr. White was an important American architect of his time. His career was rich and full and varied from designing the summer homes of the Astor's and The Vanderbilt’s to such formidable structures as The Washington Square Arch, Madison Square Garden and the New York Herald Building. He was an extrovert, a lavish entertainer with a penchant for young, beautiful women. He was killed by Henry Kendall Thaw, a multimillionaire heir to a railroad and ore fortune from Pittsburgh. Mr. Thaw rage and ill mannered behavior consumed him and finally erupted at the super club theatre on the roof of Madison Square Garden on the night of June 25, 1906. Mr. Thaw fired three shots at close range into Mr. White's face and head over the issue of his wife, Evelyn Nesbit, had dated Mr. White in the past.