4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2013.

Facing the Enemy

Artist Francis William Edmonds (American, 1806-1863)

CultureAmerican

Date1845

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 19 x 16 in. (48.3 x 40.6 cm)
Overall, Frame: 24 x 21 1/4 in. (61 x 54 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase, dedicated by the Museum Trustees to William Hennessey in celebration of his 10th anniversary as Director, May 2007

Object number89.92

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 211

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. In a workshop interior with axe and carpenter's tools, a balding man is seated in a wooden chair, balanced on two legs. He faces an open window. On the sill rests a small crate and a half-filled decanter. A handbill promoting temperance is on the wall beside the window, in shadow.

Label TextFrancis William Edmonds American, 1806–1863 Facing the Enemy, 1845 Oil on canvas In this spirited battle of willpower, a ruddy-faced carpenter stares down his foe. Despite its humorous title, Facing the Enemy addresses one of the fiercest debates of the period: the pleasures and perils of alcohol. By filling the workshop with tools and posters, Francis William Edmonds constructs a story with a familiar moral lesson. The precarious tilt of the carpenter’s chair suggests the dangerous consequences of opening the whisky bottle, but do any clues within the painting tell us if he will resist the temptation? Museum purchase, dedicated by the Museum Trustees to William Hennessey in celebration of his 10th anniversary as Director, May 2007 89.92 ProvenanceCharles M. Leupp, New York; E. A. Conover, 1860;...; New Bedford, Mass.; Christie's, 1989; The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., Museum Purchase, 1989. Exhibition History"Twentieth Annual Exhibition," National Academy of Design, New York, N.Y., 1845. (Exh. cat. no. 114) "Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries," Christie's, New York, N.Y., December 1, 1989. (Auction cat. no. 14) "Treasures for the Community: The Chrysler Collects, 1989-1996," Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., October 25,1996 - February 16, 1997. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. "American Treasures at the Willoughby-Baylor House," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 2 - December 1, 2013. Published References"National Academy of Design," _Broadway Journal_ 1 (May 10, 1845): 306. "W. S. Mount," New York _Evening Post_, June 21, 1848. "Sketchings," _The Crayon_ 3 , no. 6 (1856): 186. "Domestic Art Gossip," _The Crayon_ 7, no. 11 (1860): 323. "Domestic Art Gossip," _The Crayon_ 7, no. 12 (1860): 354. Maybelle Mann, "Francis William Edmonds: Mammon and Art," _The American Art Journal_ 2, no. 2 (Fall 1970): 101-102, fig. 12. Maybelle Mann, "Humor and Philosophy in the Paintings of Francis William Edmonds," _The Magazine Antiques_ 106 (November 1974): 867. Maybelle Mann, _Francis William Edmonds_, exh. cat., International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1975, 24-25. James T. Callow, "American Art in the Collection of Charles M. Leupp," _The Magazine Antiques_ 118 (November 1980): 1005, 1006. H. N. B. Clark, _Francis W. Edmonds: American Master in the Dutch Tradition_ (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988), 73, 80-83. _Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries_, Christie's, New York, December 1, 1989, 24. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 56-57, no. 28. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6 Kilbane, Nora C., _A Tug From the Jug: Drinking and Temperance in American Genre Painting, 1830-1860_ Phd Diss., Ohio State University, 2006. Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 60 fig. 60. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1