A November 25, 1879, report in The Cincinnati Commercial, page 8, noted that Farny was working on a painting he called “Field Mice“, which featured some children burning a pile of rubbish. Let’s look at the description:
Now, let’s look at an oil painting from 1880 owned by the Cincinnati Art Museum. It’s called Landscape with Children, which seems a generic, vanilla name that was likely applied to it after the original name was lost.
In “Landscape”, two kids are sitting around a campfire, while an older child, standing, holding a small child. Note the cart in the background; perhaps these kids were burning some ‘rubbish’ from the cart? Given “Field Mice” and “Landscape” are both oil paintings, I would say there is a high probability that this is Farny’s “Field Mice” painting.
It seems quite plausible that, while he was working on it in late 1879, he may not have finish it until early 1880. In addition, he was busy on other projects, such as the work Matt Morgan and he did on the 500ft x 50ft canvas for “Visions of Venice” that summer, along with the work on the Heath Blossoms painting, and the May Festival cards (charcoal drawings). Between all that, he also found time to work on sketches for the expo, including “The Lion and the Glove”; “Burning of the Gospel”; “Going to Church”; “A Lonely Land”; and “Croquet”, and his Illustrations for “Snoozer”, a Christmas story translated by Frank Freitsch for the 1880-1881 Christmas season**. So, the chances of him doing a second oil painting with kids around a fire seems rather slim, making it more likely that Farny’s “Field Mice” is in fact the correct name for “Landscape with Children”.
It is possible that Field Mice was shown under the title “Study” at a late February 1880 Women’s Art Association reception, but I doubt we’ll ever know that for sure as no description of his work was provided.
In 1884, Field Mice was owned by R. J. Menefee and entered into the 1884 Southern Exposition (page 9, entry #24), the only painting Farny entered that year.
** “The Lion and the Glove”; “Burning of the Gospel”; “Going to Church”; “A Lonely Land”; “Croquet”, and Snoozer are all works from 1880 that have, thus far, escaped documentation.
Some Cincinnati History Tangents: Of the artists mentioned in the top article, Mr. John Ward Dunsmore became a successful artist, creating some noteworthy paintings. Apparently, he was known for doing extensive historical research.
Miss Fletcher was Miss Clara B. Fletcher, a noted pupil of Farny’s and Mr. Ferdinand Mersman. She reportedly went to Europe in 1879 to study sculpture in Paris. She is linked to multiple ceramic events into the 1890s. Here is one of her Rookwood designs. (more on Mersman)
Mr. Foote was Edward K. Foote. He studied under Farny and accompanied him to Fort Yates in 1881. A few of his paintings reached market for sale. He eventually married a fellow artist, then moved overseas. More notes.
