Oil on Russell canvas board, signed and illegibly dated at lower right (appears to be dated 1882), retaining hand-written label to verso with title and artist's name, presented in a period gilt composition frame.

Board 14 x 22 in.; Frame dimensions 23 1/2 x 31 1/2 in.

From the Collection of the late Lillian Hoyle, Morganton, North Carolina

James Brade Sword was born in Philadelphia. In 1840, his father moved the family to Macao while he was working in the tea and silk business in Canton, China. The family returned to Philadelphia in 1850 and Sword was enrolled in public schools. He went on to study engineering, but painting was always a passion.

By 1871, Sword was working as a professional artist. He opened a studio in New York, but traveled throughout the northeast on numerous sketching trips. It was on a trip to Lake George in the Adirondacks that Sword met Asher B. Durand, a celebrated Hudson River School landscape artist. Durand was immensely influential in Sword's development as a landscape artist.

In 1881, Sword visited Conanicut Island in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. He built a house on the island in 1883 and spent many years capturing the ever-changing light and shorelines.

James Brade Sword was successful during his long career. His paintings were exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the National Academy of Design in New York, the Brooklyn Art Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Slight warp to board; yellowing varnish and staining to surface; edge wear to canvas board from frame; no evidence of retouch visible under UV light; scratch to edge of board at lower right quadrant; vertical scratch to sky in upper left quadrant; loss to lower right corner of frame; frame with age cracks and some looseness and loss (to be expecting considering age).

$1,000 - 3,000