4263 - Anton Biester, Pair of Summer Landscapes

Anton Biester, Pair of Summer Landscapes two rural scenes set in a gently undulating summer landscape of low mountain ranges; one depicts a farmer on a path by the river with a castle in the background (presumably a view of Kleve Castle), the other shows farmers in front of a cottage on the outskirts of a village, glazed, partly slightly impastoed painting, each in oil on an older reused wooden panel, one signed and dated “A. Biester fet [fecit = made] 1863”, showing signs of age; mounted as a pair in gold-stucco frames; inner dimensions (including frame) approx. 32 x 41 cm each. Artist’s details: also known as Anthony Biester, German-American portrait and landscape painter (1837 Kleve/Rhineland to 1917 Cincinnati-Madisonville/Ohio), initially a pupil of Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803-1862) in Kleve, received further artistic training in the circle of the Düsseldorf Academy; in March 1871, he emigrated with his family to the USA, settling initially in Covington, Kentucky, in 1872 he moved to Cincinnati-Madisonville, Ohio, where he worked as a freelance painter; he was a member of the Cincinnati Art Club and submitted works to various art exhibitions in the USA, including the Art Institute of Chicago between 1897 and 1902, Source: Thieme-Becker, Vollmer, AKL, Saur’s ‘Bio-Bibliographical Encyclopaedia of Artists’, Schweers, ‘Who’s Who in American Art’ and the internet.