TitleSperanza (or) Repose
Attributed Artist
Edward Dana Erving Greene
(American, 1823 - 1879)
Daten.d.
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 22 × 18 in.
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY, Bequest of James A. Suydam, 1865
Object number1299-P
Label TextThe history of the Academy's holdings in Greene's works is murky. On June 3, 1860, Greene received the Council's permission to exchange his diploma work, which had been accepted eighteen months previously, because it was "a portrait of a deceased lady." There is no mention of the character of an intended replacement nor of the receipt of any. The 1911 inventory of the Academy's collection included four works by Greene: portraits of himself and of Fredolin Schlegel, and Repose and Speranza from the James A. Suydam bequest. As the presence in the collection of a portrait of Schlegel by Greene is otherwise inexplicable, it is likely that this was Greene's replacement diploma work.Repose and Speranza were not identified in the several inventories of the collection produced after 1911. In the collection review of the 1950s, the painting numbered 1281-P was assigned the title Speranza, while 1299-P was tagged "artist unknown." The similarity in style, subject, and size of the two canvases-and the fact that no other unidentified works surviving in the collection bear the dates and characteristics of Greene's paintings-lead to their present attribution to Greene, and to their being the two works Suydam once owned.
It was common for painters to replicate their works because of a particular subject's popularity or because of a patron's specific request. Greene's exhibition record shows repetition of several titles, but these seem to be instances of single works being shown repeatedly. The exceptions are Speranza and Repose. Works bearing these titles were shown in the Academy's 1859 annual exhibition; W. C. Wait lent Speranza, while Repose presumably was available for purchase. The two paintings with those titles included in the Boston Athenaeum exhibition of 1860 were lent by James A. Suydam. Whether Suydam purchased both from the Academy show the previous year, bought only Repose and had Greene replicate Speranza, or had both works copied for him must remain a matter of speculation. Suydam owned both paintings at the time of his death in 1865. In 1864, however, R. H. Manning loaned a painting titled Repose to the Brooklyn Art Association March exhibition and to the Brooklyn and Long Island Sanitary Fair, suggesting that it may have been acquired from the 1859 annual or that Greene had replicated that subject.
The Speranza shown in the 1859 Academy annual is described in a pamphlet guide to that show: "A dreamy sadness is tenderly expressed in this picture; it is worthy the master, and those whose souls are touched with sympathy for the sorrowing, will find it a pleasing souvenir." The Academy's painting number 1281-P seems the more compatible of the two works with that description. In the spring of 1869 the Council granted Greene's request to remove Speranza temporarily for purposes of restoration.
Repose was one of only four paintings requested from the Academy for inclusion in the 1876 Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia.
