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Dr. Emondson and Family
Public Domain

Ernst Georg Fischer

Dr. Emondson and Family

1844-1854

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Ernst Georg Fischer

Dr. Emondson and Family

1844-1854

Physical Qualities Oil on canvas, board, Framed: 11 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 1 in. (29.2 x 31.8 x 2.5 cm) Sight: 7 1/2 x 8 3/8 in. (19.1 x 21.3 cm)
Credit Line Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Michael A. Abrams
Object Number 1955.190
Baltimoreans frequently supported European artists who stayed for a time in Maryland. Ernst Fischer, who had trained in Dresden, Antwerp, and Paris, worked in Baltimore from the early 1840s through the mid-1850s. While here, he enjoyed the patronage of Dr. Thomas Edmondson (1808 – 1856), landed in a local newspaper as “a gentleman of liberal education and refined tastes [who] contributed with a generous hand and sound discriminating judgment to the advancement of Science and the Arts in this community.” Two years after Edmondson’s death, pictures from his estate, including 30 paintings by Fischer, were displayed at the Maryland Historical Society. This little sketch, set in the grounds of Harlem, Edmondson’s house west of the city, closely resembles a more finished work by Fischer, Country Life (A Baltimore Conversation Piece probably at ‘Harlem’). Here, close examination reveals the bust of Washington on a plinth above Dr. Edmondson. From Harlem, the doctor could enjoy a vista of Baltimore and the harbor beyond.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1955; from Dr. and Mrs. Michael A. Abrams, Baltimore (acquired by 1941)
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "A Century of Baltimore Collecting (1840-1940)," June-September 1941, cat. p. 31 [owned by Dr. and Mrs. Abrams]
BMA, "Two Hundred and Fifty Years of Painting in Maryland," May 11-June 17, 1945, pp.57-58, no. 142
BMA, "New Accessions," Summer 1957
BMA, "Amerian Paintings from the Museum's Collection," July 2-Sept. 12, 1976
Sona K. Johnston, "American Paintings 1750-1900 from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art," Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1983, no. 44, pp. 62-63.

Inscribed: on canvas fragment attached to stetcher, "Sketch by Ernst Fischer/of Dr. Edmondson/& family about 1850"

Artist

Ernst Georg Fischer

1814–1873

German, 1815-1874; working Baltimore, c. 1845-c. 1855
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