COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
Record
AMICA ID:
CMA_.1995.46
AMICA Library Year:
2001
Object Type:
Paintings
Creator Name:
Wonder, Pieter Cristoffel
Creator Nationality:
European; Dutch
Creator Role:
artist
Creator Dates/Places:
1780 - 1852
Biography:
After a modest artistic training in his native Utrecht and extensive studies on his own, Pieter Christoffel Wonder attended the Düsseldorf Academy from 1802 through 1804, supplementing his training, as usual, by copying Old Master paintings. In 1807, with Jan Kobell II (1778-1814), Wonder founded an artist's society in Utrecht called Kunstliefde (Love for Art). He remained its director until he left for London in May 1823. Lord and Lady John Murray, who had regularly visited him in Utrecht, convinced Wonder to move to the British capital in anticipation of many commissions. Until then, Wonder painted mainly portraits and genre scenes in a meticulous style carefully rendering various materials. When he finally settled in London in 1824, Wonder made many portraits of the nobility, often depicting them in conversation pieces in the manner of seventeenth-century Dutch painter Gerard ter Borch (1584-1662). Wonder's masterpiece, Sir John Murray's Art Gallery (1830, private collection, Great Britain; related oil sketches, National Portrait Gallery, London; drawing, Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam), depicts an imaginary art gallery and portrays some important contemporary British collectors. In 1831 Wonder returned to Utrecht and, according to his pupil and biographer Christiaan Kramm (1797-1875), left his Dutch painting style behind and continued to work in a somewhat antiquated manner.
Gender:
M
Creator Birth Place:
Utrecht, 10 January 1780
Creator Death Place:
Amsterdam, 12 July 1852
Creator Name-CRT:
Pieter Cristoffel Wonder
Title:
Elisa Pearson Playter
Title Type:
Primary
View:
Full View
Creation Date:
c. 1837
Creation Start Date:
1832
Creation End Date:
1842
Materials and Techniques:
oil on wood
Dimensions:
Unframed: 20cm x 15.6cm
AMICA Contributor:
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location:
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number:
1995.46
Credit Line:
John L. Severance Fund
Inscriptions:
Signed in black paint in upper right corner: P.C.W.
Provenance:
Descendants of the sitters. Cleveland sale, Wolf's, 20 May 1995 (lots 54-56), as nineteenth-century American School. Purchased at this auction by the CMA.
Related Image Identifier Link:
CMA_.1995.46.TIF
