Lot: 3003
(French, 1848-1891)
Desserts pour les enfants
oil on canvas,
37 x 46 inches overall with frame: 40 x 49 inches
signed faintly lower left
Provenance: Purchased in 1895, Paris, France, by F.W. Cushing of Chicago IL, who owned the Hotel Moraine-on-the-Lake, which opened in Highland Park in 1900 to serve vacationing Chicagoans, many from the citys exclusive Gold Coast. Cushing was also famous for being much more than just a hotel proprietor. When Cushing was only fourteen he got his first job as a telegraph operator in a trading post extension of the Hudson Bay Company on the upper Ontario River in Canada, and he followed the electrical business in different capacities for several years. His first of many sea journeys was in 1881. At that time, Professor Elisha Gray, an inventor, employed him to demonstrate his harmonic telegraph system at the first Worlds Electric Exposition in Paris. He was presented to the Prince of Wales (King Edward) and demonstrated the harmonic telegraph to him. In 1883, while working with the Postal Telegraph Company, he directed the testing of a new telegraph wire from New York to Chicago. Although clarity was lacking, Cushing and his associates connected telephone transmitters to the wire and discovered that they could talk to each other. This was apparently the first time speech had been transmitted across such a distance. Cushing held several different positions in Chicago, such as superintendent and general manager of the Conduit Company, and manager of the Arc Light and Power Company. He introduced electricity into Highland Park. Also in 1883, Cushing married Cassie M. Scott, the daughter of the lumber king, Thomas B. Scott, from Merrill, Wisconsin. This painting was likely hung in the Hotel Moraine-on-the-Lake for many years by familial descent to current owner, Bay Area, CA.
Artist: Marie, Adrien Emmanuel
Auction Date: March 19, 2021
Estimate: $5,000 - 7,000