Lot 39
Wayman Elbridge Adams
American, (1883-1959)
Portrait of Moy Kee, Indianapolis ca.1912
oil on canvas
Provenance: Exhibited Indianapolis Museum of Art: 150 years of Indiana painters. Presented to Mrs. Leonidas Smith by the artist.
Moy Kee information posted by Joan Hostetler, Indianapolis
Although best known for its German and Irish immigrants, Indianapolis also had a small population of Chinese residents as early as the 1880s and estimated by local newspapers as 100-150 residents by the early 1910s. Finding photographs of the Chinese community or businesses has proven difficult so I was surprised to find several stereographs of Moy Kee & Company's Chinese Restaurant in the collections of the Library of Congress this week.
Moy Kee, owner of a restaurant and tea house at 506 E. Washington Street, was recognized as the Chinese mayor of Indianapolis in the early twentieth century. As a young boy, Moy moved with his uncle from Guangdon (Canton) Province to California in the late 1850s, first selling newspapers and eventually working in the governor's home. By the 1870s he had converted to Christianity, had returned to China to marry, and was living in New York City where he became outspoken against the strict U.S. laws that no longer favored Chinese immigration. His appointment to a Methodist Chinese mission to preach and teach English ended abruptly when he was accused of theft and jailed. He soon moved to Chicago where he opened a laundry and later a tea house, all the while attempting to become a U.S. citizen.
From the Archives of AskArt: Wayman Adams is known for portraits of prominent persons including authors, painters, political leaders, etc. His portrait of Booth Tarkington brought him early recognition, and he was known as a "lightning" artist because his portraits were completed in one sitting. Ethnic types constitute one of the most intriguing aspects of his work.
After receiving instruction at the Herron Art Institute* of Indianapolis, he went on to study with William Merritt Chase in Florence, Italy. From there he traveled, in 1912, to Spain with Robert Henri, and besides studying Velazquez, made many sketches of the life of the Spanish people.
The sitter is the main focus in Adams' portraits, although he did utilize accessories. Examples of such accessories would be a cigarette in his portrait of Professor Alexander Ernestinoff, shown after the War in the Luxembourg; a desk with papers and a Chinese figurine in the portrait of the dramatic critic Oliver Saylor; or a walking stick in his well-known portrait of Booth Tarkington.
Several portraits of the late Joseph Pennell, a significant figure in American art, and two portraits of the painter John McClure Hamilton, rank among Adams' best works. His portrait of President Harrison hangs in the Los Angeles Museum of Art, and one of Charles Dennis is at the Herron Art Institute. Wayman Adams also painted Col. E. M. House, Leopold Auer, Agnes Repplier, and Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Like the portraitist Gilbert Stuart, Adams was known to do a portrait two or three times to make sure he had achieved the result at which he aimed.
Adams also completed some notable group portraits, including that of Irvin S. Cobb and His Daughter; and The Conspiracy, which shows Pennell, Hamilton and Charles Burns in intimate discussion on the steps of a Philadelphia building; as well as The Art Jury, depicting a group of four Adams' first teachers in Indiana. He completed several regional series, one recording the people of Chinatown in San Francisco, and another series depicting the life of New Orleans.
Among his awards are the Logan Medal of the Arts*, with $1500, Art Institute of Chicago*, 1912, for the portrait Joseph Pennell; Greenough Memorial Prize, Newport, 1925; medal of the Sesquicentennial Exposition, 1926; first Altman Prize of the National Academy of Design*, 1926.
Source:
Cuthbert Lee, Contemporary American Portrait Painters, Illustrating and Describing the Work of Fifty Living Painters
- Dimensions: 21 14"H x 17 1/4"W (image), 26 1/2"H x 22 1/2"W (frame)
- Medium: oil on canvas
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