Mr. and Mrs. Obed J. Wilson, Cincinnati, Ohio (circa 1882)
Acquired by donation from the above, 1908

Lined. Visible craquelure throughout compositin. Under UV: Inpainting to address craquelure.
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Elizabeth Gardner’s Salon exhibition career in Paris spanned nearly five decades, from her first exhibition in 1868 to her final submission in 1914. This was one of the longest standing careers of any expatriate in the French capital. Having chosen from the outset to pursue a career as a figure painter and expand her subjects beyond themes that were generally expected of women artists, she set her sights high, in a male-dominated arena, and worked doubly hard to attain them. The result was that she became the first and only American woman painter to win a medal at the Paris Salon and one of the earliest women expatriates to support herself entirely from the sale of her art.

The two paintings by Gardner, Before the Engagement and After the Engagement¹ were companion works, or pendants, which are unusual in her oeuvre. This may be explained by the fact that they were a commission by Obed J. Wilson and it was likely he who assigned the subject based on the poem by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. The artist first mentions the commission in a letter to her brother, John, dated December, 1880: “I think I wrote that I have a splendid order for two pictures from ‘John Anderson, my jo’ which I am to execute next year for a gentleman of Cincinnati.”² The next and last mention of the pair is in a letter to her sister, Ria, in 1882, “I have just superintended the boxing of my paintings of ‘John Anderson’ and shipped them for Cincinnati. They are the best I have done, only unfortunately I have bestowed two months longer on the work than I intended. Everybody likes them…”³

As collectors, the Wilsons’ were not preoccupied with an artist’s pedigree nor the speculative value of the work. One observer remarked, “The Wilsons simply traveled comfortably about the world, and wherever and whenever they found anything that they truly liked or that expressed or interpreted an experience or an ideal that was individually theirs, whether the price was high or low, the creator famous or unknown, if it was a part of their life, they added it to their store.” ⁴

How Gardner and the Wilsons became acquainted is, at present unknown. However, as the couple spent lengthy visits in European capitals during their travels from 1877-1882, they may have visited Gardner’s studio in Paris – as well as Bouguereau’s – possibly during the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris. Gardner, as a foreign correspondent in the capital, wrote articles for the Cincinnati Daily Gazette on the exhibition, which the Wilsons may have read. Coincidentally, around the time of the commission, the theme of engagement would have clearly been in the artist’s thoughts. In 1878 Bouguereau’s daughter Henriette was married, and in 1879 Bouguereau and Gardner themselves became officially engaged. ⁵

In Gardner’s painting of the early years, or years of betrothal, the youthful figures are placed outdoors in an Arcadian setting that suggests the spring of their lives.⁶ The secluded glen, lush vegetation and proximity of the figures offer an intimate, seductive scene for the proposal. The young man, whose “locks were like the raven,” is dressed fittingly for the occasion and will soon declare his love and seal the commitment with a bouquet of flowers.

In the pendant, After the Engagement, representing their golden years of marriage, the sitting and standing figures are reversed and depicted indoors by the hearth, a clock ticking overhead. This obviously is the winter of their lives, as described in the Burns’ poem and their interlocking hands, bodies and gaze attest to their oneness of spirit and their “monie a cantie (splendid) day” together.

The canvases, like the poem, are a tribute to the fidelity and life-long affection articulated in the Wilsons’ bonds, as well as the healthy-minded motives that inspired the paintings’ creation. It’s heartening to note that these “companion pieces” still hang together today, some 130 years later, a rare feat for such pendants. It is also noteworthy that the Wilson collection at Twin Towers, a Life Enriching Community, with its works by Hugues Merle and William Bouguereau, has allowed Gardner to remain, all these years, in the distinguished company of her two most influential Parisian teachers.

They now embark upon a new journey.

¹ Both works were photographed by the Braun studio circa 1882. Before the Engagement is stock no. 1744 and After the Engagement is stock no. 1745.
² Elizabeth Jane Gardner to Jonny Gardner, Dec. 23, 1880, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
³ Elizabeth Jane Gardner to Ria Gardner, July 14, 1882, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
⁴ Caroline Landrum McDowell, The Wilson Art Collection, Twin Towers Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio. n.d.
⁵ To commemorate their engagement, Bouguereau painted two companion pieces (1879), one a self-portrait and the other a portrait of Gardner, both of which he gave to his fiancée as a gift. They remained in her possession until her death in 1922.
⁶ This scene probably found its inspiration in a work by William Bouguereau entitled Séduction, painted in 1872 when Gardner was active in his studio. See Damien Bartoli, with Frederick C. Ross, Catalogue Raisonné of his Painted Work, New York,  2010: 146-147.