Milking Time

- 1905
F. J. Biesing

1905 - 1906
Scott & Fowles, New York, NY, USA, acquired from F. J. Biesing [1]

1906 - 1917
Henry C. Lytton (1846-1949), Chicago, IL, USA, purchased from Scott & Fowles [2]

1917 -
James G. Shepherd (b.1867), Scranton, PA, likely purchased from American Art Association sale, January 25, 1917, lot no. 155 through O. Berneil, agent [3]

- 1975
Mae Meissner Whitaker (1883-1975), St. Louis, MO [4]

1975 - 1977
Whitaker Charitable Foundation, St. Louis, MO [5]

1977 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by the Whitaker Charitable Foundation [6]


Notes:
[1] There is a Scott & Fowles label on the back of the painting, with the number 358. According to gallery records, there were two paintings by Maris entitled “Milking Time” in Scott & Fowles’ possession in 1906, but no number was assigned [Scott & Fowles artists’ files and scrapbook, 1904-1946, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., reel D8; photocopy, SLAM document files]. This painting was instead titled “Landscape & Cattle,” no. 358, within the Scott & Fowles Artists’ Files Scrapbook, 1904-1906. Gallery records indicate that they acquired the work from F. J. Biesing in 1905, and the following year it was in the collection of Henry C. Lytton.

[2] Henry C. Lytton was the owner of Henry C. Lytton and Sons Company, popularly known as "The Hub," one of the Chicago's premier clothing stores during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Scott & Fowles gallery records (see notes [1]) also indicate that this painting was included in the American Art Association sale, January 24-25, 1917, lot no. 155 as “Milking Time.” This work is listed under the second evening’s sale, as “property of a private collector,” and includes the information that it was purchased from Scott & Fowles [“Illustrated Catalogue of Nearly Three Hundred Valuable Paintings of the American and Foreign Schools.” New York: American Art Association Galleries, January 25, 1917, lot 155]. We know from the Scott & Fowles gallery records that Henry C. Lytton purchased the painting from them in 1906, so it can be deduced that Lytton was still the owner of the work at the time of the 1917 sale.

[3] According to the Scott & Fowles gallery records (see notes [1] and [2]), the painting seems to have been acquired from the 1917 sale by O. Berneil, agent for James G. Shepherd, who had other works by Maris in his collection [Scott & Fowles artists' files and scrapbook, 1904-1946, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; copy, SLAM document files].

[4] Mae Meissner Whitaker, who married Lyndon C. Whitaker, a successful advertising executive, was an avid art collector whose wealth derived from the St. Louis-based McKinney Bakery Company, co-owned by her brother George Meissner, and her brother-in-law John E. McKinney. After living in California for a time, Mae Meissner Whitaker returned to St. Louis in 1942. Upon her death in 1975, The Whitaker Foundation was formed as a memorial to her husband, and as a way of supporting the arts in St. Louis [“History,” Whitaker Foundation, accessed September 23, 2008, ].

[5] The Whitaker Charitable Foundation, founded by Mae Meissner Whitaker (see note [4]), gave the Museum a number of 19th century paintings as part of its initial contribution in 1977 [SLAM document files].

[6] Minutes of the Acquisitions Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, April 14, 1977.