This portrait entitled “Sadness,” by American artist Benjamin Orso Eggleston  (b. 1867 d. 1937) depicts a thoughtful young woman dressed in a gold robe. Her eyes are slightly teary as she stares away from the viewer. Benjamin Eggleston is well known for his paintings of figures, portraits, and landscapes and has been classified as an American Tonalist, Barbizon School. He studied under artist Douglas Volk at the Minneapolis School of Fine Art, then later worked as an artist for the Minneapolis Tribune. He later moved to New York, became the president of the Brooklyn Artist Club (later renamed Brooklyn Society of Artists), a member of the Salmagundi Club, a charter member of the Brooklyn Ten, and exhibited in the National Academy of Design, Art Institute of Chicago, Pennsylvania Academy, Carnegie Institute, and the Brooklyn Art Institute. He spent a number of his formative years studying in Paris, and adopted a more impressionistic style, focusing on painting mostly female subjects. One piece, “Le temps qui passé” was exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1896.

Signed and dated ‘06 in lower left corner

Medium: oil on linen

Size of support: 12” x 8 1/4”   Size of outside frame: 18 3/4” x 14 3/4”

Year of creation: 1906

Condition: painting has been cleaned, patch on verso, several small areas of inpaint. Previous varnish layer has cross linked with paint layer in some areas. Linen, stretcher, ground, all in stable condition. Missing keys have been replaced, canvas is taut. The original frame is solid and in excellent condition, some small age-related losses. 

High auction result: $20,000 5/22/2001