FILTER RESULTS
Trial Scene
ca. 1862-186322 1/4 x 27 in. (56.5 x 68.6 cm)
David Gilmour Blythe
United States (East Liverpool, OH, 1815 - 1865, Pittsburgh, PA)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number:
1941.24
Location: Currently on view
Blythe’s painting shows a scene of frontier justice in a rough building serving as a courtroom. A backwoods “lawyer” at the center either defends or makes his case against a shackled prisoner at the right. However, some elements of the scene, including the onlookers—some armed with long guns, some distracted by a card game—and the pot and sack at the lower left labelled “tar” and “feathers,” reveal that this is an extrajudicial proceeding. The prisoner whittles unconcernedly while his fate is decided, suggesting that this is a typically satirical genre scene for Blythe, who made other paintings of farcical trials and caricatured politics.
[Gallery label text, 2019]
[Gallery label text, 2019]
Marks
Artist's signature, lower left: Blythe
Provenance
Artist; Private collection, Philadelphia, PA; M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York; purchased from them by the Gallery in 1941
Keywords
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Additional Images
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Milestones in American Art Memorial Art Gallery 11/14/1941 - 12/7/1941
- David G. Blythe The Butler Institute of American Art 10/10/1947 - 11/2/1947
- Rediscoveries in American Painting 10/3/1955 - 11/6/1955
- A Hundred Years Ago American Federation of Arts 11/2/1958 - 11/24/1959
- American Paintings from Collection of the Memorial Art Gallery Memorial Art Gallery 1/13/1967 - 5/14/1967
- Nineteenth Century American Genre New York State Council on the Arts 4/16/1974 - 6/15/1974
- The Eye of the Law University Museums, University of Mississippi 10/2/1978 - 12/4/1978
- The World of David Gilmour Blythe (1815-1865) Smithsonian Institution 10/17/1980 - 7/5/1981
- We Never Sleep: The First Fifty Years of the Pinkertons Smithsonian Institution 7/31/1981 - 1/3/1982
- The Fine Art of Painting Conservation 4/13/1982 - 5/13/1982
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Susan Dodge Peters, ed. Memorial Art Gallery: An Introduction to the Collection. New York, New York: Memorial Art Gallery in association with Hudson Hills Press, 1988.
- Article Title: A Gift of American Painting. Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Memorial Art Gallery. Gallery Notes. Rochester, New York: Memorial Art Gallery, 1935-1995. Issue Date: November 1941. Page Number: 2-4
- Rochester Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester Handbook. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1961.
- Article Author: Moore, Gertrude H.. Article Title: Memorial Art Gallery Acquires Paintings Done by 19th Century Americans. Article Scope: Article. Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, NY: Rochester Print Co. Issue Date: November 23 1941.
- Art Digest. New York, New York: Art Digest, Inc.
- ARTnews. New York, New York: ARTnews Associates
- Article Author: Croughton, Amy H.. Article Title: Artists and Craftsmen. Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Rochester Times-Union. Rochester, New York, 1923-1963. Issue Date: Nov. 14, 1941.
- Time Magazine. New York, NY
- The Eye of the Law: An Exhibition in Honor of the One Hundred Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the University of Mississippi Law Center. MS: The University of Mississippi, 1978.
- Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell brochure. Orlando, FL: Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell, 1993.
- David G. Blythe. Youngstown, OH: The Butler Art Institute, 1947.
- Hermann Warner Williams, Jr.. Mirror to the American Past: A Survey of American Genre Painting: 1750-1900. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1973.
- Art & Antiques. New York, NY: Billboard Publications
- Literature & Language. Evanston, IL: McDougal, Littell & Co., 1991.
- Michigan Bar Journal. Ypsilanti, MI: State Bar of Michigan
- James Thomas Flexner. Nineteenth Century American Painting. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1970.
- Jane Turner, ed. The Encyclopedia of American Art before 1914. MacMillan Reference Ltd., 1999.
- The World of David Gilmour Blythe. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980.
- Bruce W. Chambers. The World of David Gilmour Blythe, 1815-1865. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980.
- American Academic Encyclopedia. Princeton, NJ: Arété Publishing Company, 1980.
- Court of Common Pleas, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Annual Report, 1979. Pittsburgh, PA: Court of Common Pleas, 1979.
- The American Heritage History of American Law. New York, NY: American Heritage, 1974.
- Rediscoveries in American Painting. Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1955.
- American Civilization. Pound Ridge, NY: Sunburst Communications, Inc., 1973.
- Sara Robbins, ed. The Law: A Treasury of Art and Literature. Southport, CT: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., 1990.
- Matthew Baigell. A Concise History of American Painting and Sculpture. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1983.
- Reading Literature. Evanston, IL: McDougal, Littell & Co., 1985.
- Frederick Voss. We Never Sleep. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981.
- M. Knoedler & Co.. Trial Scene, Possibly of a Feud Such as the 'Molly Maguires' Affairs in Pennsylvania, by David G. Blythe, 1815-1865. New York, NY: M. Knoedler & Co., 1941.
- Martha Rumsey. Trial Scene by David Gilmour Blythe. , 1980.
- Bruce W. Chambers. David Gilmour Blythe. , 1974.
- The Youngstown Vindicator. Youngstown, OH
- Dorothy Miller. The Life and Work of David G. Blythe. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1950.
- Blair Kauffman and Bonnie Collier. Law in America. New Haven, CT: Hugh Lauter Levin Assoc. Inc.
- Youngstown Vindicator. Youngstown, OH
- Article Author: Morgan, Kerry Anne. Article Title: David Gilmour Blythe: Trial Scene (Molly Maguires),. Article Scope: Chapter and reproduction. Marjorie B. Searl, ed. Seeing America: painting and sculpture from the collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2006. Page Number: 78-80
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Web Links
See links to web pages and lesson plans
Seeing America Inservice
Materials from a teacher in-service presentation Spring 2008
Seeing America
Chapter on David Gilmour Blythe's Trial Scene (Molly Maguires), written by Kerry Anne Morgan.