Last winter the Museum Collections and Exhibition (MC&E) team spent several weeks re-cataloging the Paul Sawyier painting collection. Sawyier, an Impressionist from Frankfort, is known for his watercolor landscapes of central Kentucky and the Catskill area of New York. As we “waded” through painting after painting of images of the Elkhorn Creek and the Kentucky River, we began to get a sense of Sawyier’s style and technique. That’s why when we came across a painting entitled Main Street at Calvert Corner we realized something was not quite right. The lines weren’t as straight or crisp as Sawyier’s and the skill level wasn’t the same.
Main Street at Calvert Corner (1980.40.19)
After a bit of research we discovered that Main Street at Calvert Corner was a copy of Sawyier’s painting entitled A Rainy Day in Frankfort that we also have in the collection. Although each painting depicts the same scene it was obvious (even to us non-art historians) that they were done by two different people. As we continued to work our way through the collection we were able to identify five more so-called “faux Sawyiers.” Some were even signed with Sawyier’s signature! We know that Sawyier had students. We also know there were art classes in the 20th century who copied Sawyier’s work as an exercise in technique. Although we don’t know who painted our copies, we do know who one of the Sawyier copyists was.
After writing about these “faux Sawyiers” in the fall 2011 issue of the Chronicle, I received an email from a KHS member in Louisville who had another copy of A Rainy Day in Frankfort. This one, painted by Eva Graham of Frankfort, had Sawyier’s signature but more importantly had been signed “copy by Eva S. Graham.” By looking at the photograph one can tell that Mrs. Graham was a much better artist that the person who painted the copy that we have. Eva Scottow Graham was born in 1878 and died in 1971, so it’s possible she either studied with Sawyier himself or she could have been a student later in the 20th century. Graham also painted a copy of Sawyier’s Old Louisville Road that I think is better than the original.
A Rainy Day in Frankfort (2008.21.4)
I think it would be fun to do a mini-exhibition of the copies hanging next to the originals giving folks the opportunity to compare the two. One of the other items on our “things to do when we have time” list is to determine if Mrs. Graham painted any of the copies that we have. To be honest, only a couple of them would qualify as good enough to have been done by her. Most would fall in the category of “folk” or “primitive.” Unfortunately those ideas will have to wait until some time in the future. In the meantime, here are images of Sawyier’s A Rainy Day in Frankfort and the copy entitled Main Street at Calvert Corner. Can you tell which is the real Sawyier?
-Sara Elliot, KHS Curator
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