William Rimmer (American, 1816-1879) Job and His Comforters

Description:

William Rimmer (American, 1816-1879)

Job and His Comforters
Signed "Rimmer" l.r., titled and inscribed, and with label "...Owner Carol
ine Hunt Rimmer" on the reverse.
Oil on board, 10 x 12 in. (25.4 x 30.4 cm),framed (under glass).
Condition: Damage to edges, retouch, surface grime, craquelure.

Provenance: The artist's daughter, Caroline Hunt Rimmer, probably to her niece Edith Rimmer Durham Simonds, through to Paul Chalfin (painter and designer of the James Deering estate "Viscaya," Miami, Florida) to his sister Mary Anita Ranger, then by descent through her family to the present owner.

Literature: Jeffery Weidman, William Rimmer: Critical Catalogue Raisonne, volume ii, entry 108, pp. 659-661 and volume v, illustration 74.

Jeffery Weidman et al., William Rimmer: A Yankee Michelangelo, Catalogue for the Exhibition at the Brockton Art Museum/Fuller Memorial, Brockton, Massachusetts, and subsequent venues (Brockton Art Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts, 1985),p. 91.

Exhibitions: Drawings, Paintings, and Sculpture by the Late Dr. William Rimmer..., J. Eastman Chase Gallery, Boston, February, 1883, entry 90.

William Rimmer, Centennial Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, February 17-March 1, 1916.

N.B. Truman Bartlett is the first to publish the connection between Rimmer and Job in 1882. As Jeffrey Weidman elaborates in Yankee Michelangelo, "...The story of a long-suffering man who was eventually vindicated would have had personal meaning for Rimmer." Rimmer approached the subject several times. Of this version, which Weidman dates c. 1874-c. 1877, he states in volume 2 of the Catalogue Raisonne "...It is certainly the most successful work of the Job theme in Rimmer's oeuvre...the gesture of Job...appears to be more imploring, accepting, and embracing. [It] is not an illustration from the Job story but appears to be a symbolic encapsulation of the reconciliation to come."

We are very grateful to Dr. Jeffery Weidman for his assistance in cataloguing this work.
Estimate $8,000-12,000

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