Seated Buddha, from the Monument of Borobudur, Java

Maker(s)
Artist: Joseph Lindon Smith (1863-1950)
Historical period(s)
late 19th-mid 20th century
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
H x W: 10.8 x 51.5 cm (4 1/4 x 20 1/4 in)
Geography
United States
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1912.17a-b
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Oil painting

Keywords
Buddha, Buddhism, United States
Provenance

To 1912
Detroit Institute of Arts, to 1912 [1]

From 1912 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from the Detroit Institute of Arts on May 15, 1912 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See List, American Paintings other than by Whistler, A, pg. 9, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Detroit Institute of Arts (C.L. Freer source) founded 1885

Label

Joseph Lindon Smith was born at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. After studying at the Boston School of Fine Arts for two years, he worked at the Julian Acadmey under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre before returning in 1884 to Boston as a professional artist. Smith was renowned in his time for meticulous copies of ancient artifacts. The artist used a special technique that involved applying paint directly from the tube to the canvas. The result was a dry granular surface intended to simulate the flatness and texture of bas reliefs. (Dr. M. Mahudi Allam, Joseph Lindon Smith, the Man and the Artist, Ministry of Education, Cairo, 1949, p. 7.) Monochromatic tones of gray, green, and beige added to the illusion of rough stone. His paintings were prominent in the early collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Art and the Fogg Museum at a time when casts of famous sculpture were used for study and exhibition and it was not thought unusual to either execute or display copies of masterpieces and archaeological remains.

Published References
  • Burns A. Stubbs. Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints, and Copper Plates by and Attributed to American and European Artists, Together with a List of Original Whistleriana, in the Freer Gallery of Art. vol. 1, no. 2, 2nd ed. Washington, 1967. pl. 12.
Collection Area(s)
American Art
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