Beschreibung:

oil on canvas, unsigned. A fantastic view of mid-19th century Lebanon looking north, with a mother and her 2 children on a hillside in the foreground and a haywagon on the road into town. At the crossroads in town is the Lebanon House, originally and presently called the Golden Lamb. Unframed; 32" x 42.5". The mate to this painting is in the collection of the Warren County Historical Society in Lebanon, Ohio. They are identical in size and clearly by the same hand. The viewpoint of the painting offered here was probably the Greek Revival home of John Milton Williams, called Glendower, which still stands and is now maintained as an historic site by the Ohio Historical Society. The viewpoint of the painting at the WCHS is from the opposite side of town. Many of the same buildings are visible in both, and using those buildings as guides, the pair can be dated to the 1850s. The road leading into town is Cincinnati Pike, today Ohio Route 42. As it turns to the left, it becomes Broadway, which should extend back beyond Cincinnati Pike and up the hill. The main crossroads in town is Broadway and Main Street, and the Lebanon House (Golden Lamb) is at that intersection. The creek on the left is Turtle Creek, which turns north, up the left side of the painting, and in front of the home of Thomas Corwin, 15th governor of Ohio (1840-1842). Other identifiable buildings include the Southwestern Normal School (Lebanon Academy), the Warren County Courthouse, the Lebanon Town Hall, and the Lebanon House (Golden Lamb). The most prominent building in the painting is the large white structure just to the left of center called the Lebanon House, which was established in 1815 by Isaac Stubbs, a Quaker immigrant from Wrightsboro Station, Georgia. In 1845, Stubbs advertised in the Western Star: That Valuable Tavern Stand, long known as The Golden Lamb Hotel, now the Lebanon House...is now for rent, or for sale. The House has lately been enlarged, and is in the first state of improvement. The hotel proved a successful business for decades and remains a local landmark. Controversial figure Clement Vallandigham, who was banished to the South for speaking out against Lincoln, accidentally shot and killed himself in one of its rooms. The Golden Lamb has hosted numerous presidents, including Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, and William McKinley Two artists have been suggested as the artist of both the painting offered here and its mate at the WCHS: Edward Beyer and Marcus Mote Beyer (1820-1865) was a German-born artist who came to America in 1848 and spent much of the 1850s traveling through New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio painting precise topographical landscapes. A bird's-eye view of Cincinnati by Beyer is in the collection the Dayton Art Institute. Mote (1817-1898) was a self-taught Quaker artist who grew up in southwestern Ohio and opened up a studio in Lebanon in 1850. For more than two decades he painted portraits and made daguerreotypes. He also became interested in landscapes, and in 1855, he advertised in the Western Star, M. Mote informs his friends that he is still in town...and engaged in Portrait Painting, and Landscapes... By comparison, the painting offered here is more detailed than Mote's landscapes, but it is not as precise as Beyer's work. While circumstantial evidence can support an attribution to either of these artists, the pair of Lebanon bird's-eyes may be the work of another, yet unknown, artist. Recently discovered in the attic of a Cincinnati home, this landscape is one of the most important Ohio paintings to surface in many years. Provenance:Descended, along with its mate, in the family of Governor Thomas Corwin of Lebanon, Ohio Condition:Recently conserved, report available; VG.