RA Fox Garden of Romance

R. ATKINSON FOX SIGNED-IN-PLATE GARDEN PRINT - 1920s LITHOGRAPH IN AN ORNATE GILT GESSO FRAME, UNDER GLASS An antique framed color lithograph after the American-Canadian illustrator R. Atkinson Fox, one of the most widely reproduced print artists of the early twentieth century. The image is a classic Fox garden idyll: a sunlit flagstone terrace path running back under an arch of white blossoming shrubs on the left, a low stone balustrade on the right lined with carved swag urns spilling yellow and white flowers, tall dark Italian cypresses beyond, and a soft blue-green range of mountains fading into haze under a pale sky. The signature R. Atkinson Fox is printed in the image at lower left. The subject and the outside frame size of roughly twenty-four by sixteen inches match the print Fox collectors know as Garden of Romance, one of his most popular garden compositions, though no printed title is visible on this example. It sits under glass in a period ornate gilt composition frame with reeded rails and scrolled acanthus corners. The frame has real problems: there are several chips and losses in the gesso ornament exposing white plaster and bare wood, described in detail below. Even so, the print itself displays beautifully, and the piece reads as a genuine 1920s parlor picture rather than a modern reproduction. It pairs well with the two Charles M. Russell prints and the other framed art offered elsewhere in this sale. Sold as one framed print. Description Antique framed color lithograph after a painting by R. Atkinson Fox, garden landscape subject, flagstone path with flowering shrubs, balustrade with flower-filled stone urns, cypress trees, and distant mountains. Signature printed within the image at the lower left reads R. Atkinson Fox, applied as part of the printed image rather than hand-signed. The signature was read from enlarged photographs and is small and slightly blurred in these images, so bidders should verify it themselves from the photographs. No printed title, publisher line, edition number, copyright line, or date is visible on the face in these photographs, and the back was not photographed, so the specific title, publisher, and printing date are not confirmed and are not claimed. Frame is a period ornate design in gilt-finished composition over wood, with a flat reeded and beaded outer rail in a rubbed antique gold and dark bronze finish, applied scrolled acanthus ornaments at all four corners, and a stepped inner lip at the glass. Print is glazed under glass with no visible mat, the image running nearly to the frame lip. Overall outside frame dimensions measure approximately 24 to 25 inches wide by roughly 16 inches tall per the tape-measure photographs. In each measuring photograph the tape hook is laid on the face or against the outer edge of the frame while the piece lies flat on carpet at an angle to the camera, so these figures are close estimates rather than measurements. Bidders should verify all dimensions from the photographs. The back of the piece was not photographed, so backing, hanging hardware, framer or publisher labels, and any inscriptions on the verso are unknown. Buyers should assume hanging hardware may need to be checked or added and should ask before bidding if the back matters to them. Attribution note Robert Atkinson Fox, born in Toronto, Ontario on December 11, 1860 and died in 1935, was one of the most prolific and most reproduced commercial artists of the early twentieth century, according to the R. Atkinson Fox Society and gallery and reference sources including Bedford Fine Art Gallery, Artnet, and MutualArt. He trained under the portrait painter John Wesley Bridgman in connection with the Ontario Society of Artists, moved to the United States, and by about 1900 was working in New York, where major calendar companies and art print publishers commissioned him to produce images that were issued as art prints, calendars, posters, postcards, puzzles, ink blotters, magazine covers, and packaging. He produced hundreds of original oils that were reproduced as color lithographs in enormous quantities, and he also worked under a number of pseudonyms, sometimes at a publisher's request, which is documented in the Fox and William M. Thompson identification and price guide by Patricia L. Gibson. Because his prints were issued by multiple publishers over decades in many sizes, and because collectors distinguish between confirmed Fox images and lookalike "Fox maybes," the R. Atkinson Fox Society treats a printed signature, a direct attribution, or a publisher's painting record as the basis for identification. The Garden of Romance identification here is based on the matching subject and the roughly 24 by 16 inch framed size seen in comparable examples offered by antique dealers, and is offered as the consignor's photo-based opinion, not as a guarantee. Nothing here is offered as an original painting, a signed original, or a limited edition. Bid on the item as pi