Samuel H. Crone, Lamenting Woman (Sarah H. Crone), 1880s or 1890s
Samuel H. Crone (American, 1858-1913)
Lamenting Woman (Sarah H. Crone), 1880s or 1890s
Red chalk, 9 15/16 x 12 3/8 in. (25.3 x 31.5 cm.)
The Cleveland Museum of Art, In memory of Sarah H. Crone (nee Voegtly), gift of William S. Huff, 1999.37
When I was at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, I was visited by a gentleman named William Huff, who owned a large group of drawings (and some paintings) by his ancestor Samuel Crone, who had studied in Munich in the 1870s, around the same time as Frank Duvenck and William Merritt Chase. I was impressed by their generally high standard of technical competence and fascinated to see such a large group of drawings that remained together as a group, and provided an unusually detailed record of Crone’s training and influences. William Huff and I remained in touch and in 1997 I was the major author of a catalogue of Crone’s drawings produced by the Art Museum at the University of Memphis. William Huff eventually donated most of the collection to the University of Memphis, but I arranged for him to give this drawing, one of the best, to the Cleveland Museum of Art. I persuaded him that it would benefit Crone’s reputation to be represented in such a major collection.
Bibliography
Henry Adams, "Life Lines: The Drawings of Samuel Crone," in Return to Memphis: The Art of Samuel Hester Crone (1858-1913), exhibition catalog, Art Museum, University of Memphis, September 6-November 8, 1997, p. 42.