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The exact reason for H.C. Eno’s etching after Worthington Whittredge’s The Old Hunting Grounds, 1864, is unknown, but it was probably personal and not for profit. Only a few impressions of the etching after Whittredge’s masterpiece are known and Eno himself was an enigmatic character. His sister Mary was married to James Pinchot, who acquired Reynolda House’s version of The Old Hunting Grounds the year that it was painted. Thus, Eno could have easily known the painting. [1] Pinchot was a wealthy importer and wallpaper manufacturer in New York who derived some of his fortune from land speculation and timbering. He was also an advocate for responsible forestry who abhorred the reckless destruction of natural resources and earned the sobriquet “Father of Forestry in America.” This may explain his purchase of Whittredge’s painting, which features an idyllic view of a forest. The painting was inherited by Pinchot’s son, Gifford, who worked at Biltmore Forest in western North Carolina and later became the first chief of the United States Forest Service.
Henry Clay Eno (circa 1841–after 1910) was a physician and an amateur etcher; he published treatises on eye disease, which he illustrated with carefully drawn etchings. He was a founding member, along with James D. Smillie, Louis C. Tiffany, and Robert Swain Gifford, of the New York Etching Club. He attended meetings sporadically between 1877 and 1883, when he seems to have dropped his membership. Other family members were similarly interested in prints; a brother, Amos F. Eno, amassed a sizeable collection, now housed at the New York Public Library, of views of New York City and its landmarks.
The etching, The Old Hunting Ground (sic), closely adheres to its oil counterpart, except for the elimination of color. Apparently to compensate for this, Eno opened up and lightened considerably the sky in the background. Because of the reduced scale of the etching, he rendered many details, such as leaves, as little squiggles. He also diminished the size and prominence of the canoe in the lower foreground—the object that gives meaning to the painting’s title and its allegorical reference to the displacement of Native Americans in the nineteenth century from the eastern regions of the United States.
Beneath the plate mark are etched the following, from the left: W. Whittredge, pinxt, The Old Hunting Ground, H.C. Eno sculp. In ink in another hand is Merry Christmas To Mrs. Canda/Worthington Whittredge/December 25th 1906. The identity of Mrs. Canda has not been established, but the formal salutation suggests she was not a close friend or family member. She could have been a patron. The date points to a possible time frame for Eno’s creation of the etching.
The fact that Whittredge presumably gave this etching as a present almost fifty years after he painted the oil indicates that the artist continued to value the seminal and provocative work, perhaps because of the message it conveyed about the plight of Native Americans. By the first decade of the twentieth century the “Indian problem” had been “resolved” by the Dawes Act of 1887, which forced the assimilation of Native Americans by making them citizens of the United States and reducing the amount of land the tribes possessed by seventy-two million acres. [2]
Notes:
[1] Anthony F. Janson to Ellen Kutcher, November 10, 1997, object file Reynolda House Museum of American Art and Grey Towers National Historic Site, http://www.fs.fed.us/gt/local-links/historical-info/james-mary/jamesmary.shtml
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Act
ProvenanceBefore 1967
Mitchell Work, Nutley, NJ. [1]
After 1967
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY, given by Mitchell Work, 1967. [2]
Notes:
[1] Letter from Mitchell Work, April 9, 1967 (See Object File).
[2] Memo to File, April 3, 1995 (See Object File).
Exhibition History
DepartmentCollection of Barbara B. Millhouse
The Old Hunting Ground
Artist
Worthington Whittredge
(1820 - 1910)
Dateafter 1864
Mediumetching
DimensionsFrame: 14 1/2 x 11 3/4 in. (36.8 x 29.8 cm)
Image: 7 3/4 x 5 7/8 in. (19.7 x 14.9 cm)
SignedH.C. Eno Sculp.
Credit LineCourtesy of Barbara B. Millhouse
CopyrightPublic Domain
Object numberIL2003.1.37
DescriptionBefore photographic reproduction of paintings became commonplace, printmakers made copies of popular paintings such as Emmanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware and Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life. The wide distribution of these prints was a lucrative industry for artists and their publishers. The exact reason for H.C. Eno’s etching after Worthington Whittredge’s The Old Hunting Grounds, 1864, is unknown, but it was probably personal and not for profit. Only a few impressions of the etching after Whittredge’s masterpiece are known and Eno himself was an enigmatic character. His sister Mary was married to James Pinchot, who acquired Reynolda House’s version of The Old Hunting Grounds the year that it was painted. Thus, Eno could have easily known the painting. [1] Pinchot was a wealthy importer and wallpaper manufacturer in New York who derived some of his fortune from land speculation and timbering. He was also an advocate for responsible forestry who abhorred the reckless destruction of natural resources and earned the sobriquet “Father of Forestry in America.” This may explain his purchase of Whittredge’s painting, which features an idyllic view of a forest. The painting was inherited by Pinchot’s son, Gifford, who worked at Biltmore Forest in western North Carolina and later became the first chief of the United States Forest Service.
Henry Clay Eno (circa 1841–after 1910) was a physician and an amateur etcher; he published treatises on eye disease, which he illustrated with carefully drawn etchings. He was a founding member, along with James D. Smillie, Louis C. Tiffany, and Robert Swain Gifford, of the New York Etching Club. He attended meetings sporadically between 1877 and 1883, when he seems to have dropped his membership. Other family members were similarly interested in prints; a brother, Amos F. Eno, amassed a sizeable collection, now housed at the New York Public Library, of views of New York City and its landmarks.
The etching, The Old Hunting Ground (sic), closely adheres to its oil counterpart, except for the elimination of color. Apparently to compensate for this, Eno opened up and lightened considerably the sky in the background. Because of the reduced scale of the etching, he rendered many details, such as leaves, as little squiggles. He also diminished the size and prominence of the canoe in the lower foreground—the object that gives meaning to the painting’s title and its allegorical reference to the displacement of Native Americans in the nineteenth century from the eastern regions of the United States.
Beneath the plate mark are etched the following, from the left: W. Whittredge, pinxt, The Old Hunting Ground, H.C. Eno sculp. In ink in another hand is Merry Christmas To Mrs. Canda/Worthington Whittredge/December 25th 1906. The identity of Mrs. Canda has not been established, but the formal salutation suggests she was not a close friend or family member. She could have been a patron. The date points to a possible time frame for Eno’s creation of the etching.
The fact that Whittredge presumably gave this etching as a present almost fifty years after he painted the oil indicates that the artist continued to value the seminal and provocative work, perhaps because of the message it conveyed about the plight of Native Americans. By the first decade of the twentieth century the “Indian problem” had been “resolved” by the Dawes Act of 1887, which forced the assimilation of Native Americans by making them citizens of the United States and reducing the amount of land the tribes possessed by seventy-two million acres. [2]
Notes:
[1] Anthony F. Janson to Ellen Kutcher, November 10, 1997, object file Reynolda House Museum of American Art and Grey Towers National Historic Site, http://www.fs.fed.us/gt/local-links/historical-info/james-mary/jamesmary.shtml
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Act
ProvenanceBefore 1967
Mitchell Work, Nutley, NJ. [1]
After 1967
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY, given by Mitchell Work, 1967. [2]
Notes:
[1] Letter from Mitchell Work, April 9, 1967 (See Object File).
[2] Memo to File, April 3, 1995 (See Object File).
Exhibition History
Status
Not on view
Original/Derivative
