Neal Auction 2012

W denotes the lot is illustrated at www.nealauction.com 79 341. Richard Clague (French/New Orleans, 1821-1873) , “Louisiana Drilling Rigs”, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 16 1/8 in. x 24 in., in an antique frame. $80000/120000 Provenance: Collection of Elise Meisen Smith Howard; Succession of Harry T. Howard III, New Orleans. Note: The landscape offered here perfectly exemplifies the artistic precepts of Richard Clague.  His landscape compositions usually have a “central view” and feature a road or water in the foreground, wedging toward a horizontal screen of trees, often with a vernacular building and rural figures (people or livestock) below an expanse of sky. Clague’s luminist tendencies are exemplified by the vivid blue Louisiana sky streaked with clouds. The handling of light as seen in the reflection on the bayou ties the landscape to the sky above. The marshes in southern Louisiana were sites of salt production by Native peoples for 500 years well in advance of later production by European settlers and American entrepreneurs. The marsh landscape and figure at center wielding a long handled trowel  seen here are indicative of an evaporation pool for brine salt production. With brine works and the discovery of a salt dome at Avery Island in 1862, salt production was essential to the Confederate cause; the Avery Island mine produced 10,000 metric tons of rock salt until Union Colonel W.K. Kimball destroyed the mine’s infrastructure in 1863.  The two towers depicted in this late 19th c. canvas are perhaps the earliest precursor of the technology that would drive Louisiana mineral/oil and gas production decades  later. The pipes centering each tower work together to create a siphon extracting underground  reservoirs. Oil, gas, and sulphur drilling occurred on a large scale near Lake Charles, Louisiana after 1900, though exploratory wells certainly would have appeared earlier. The scene here is a more modest production than the Avery Island Salt Dome or later oil patches, the wells are integrated with agricultural pursuits, vine stakes are shown in the field on the left.   The scene is significant. A mere “curiosity” would have been presented in sketch form by Clague. This canvas, large and meticulously rendered, indicates the importance of the site to the artist and his patrons and evidences the importance of mineral production in southern Louisiana after 1850. Thanks to Dr. and Mrs. Jack Holden for their thoughtful examination of this canvas. 341