Charles Blauvelt

(1824-1900)

There was a period in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the quantity of second-tier artists was so large that many could be obtained by the lessthan- filthy-rich collectors. My trips to Kennedy Galleries during lunch breaks afforded me the opportunity to see what was in the racks. This is where the magic could be found. Having befriended a wonderful, retired New York City fireman now working on the Kennedy staff gave me—the passionate young collector with a very minimal bank account—access to the back rooms. I would prowl feverishly through paintings that had been in the racks for a long time and, as far as I could tell, had not been pulled out to be hung on the walls and repriced. The trick was to locate good work at old prices. This very poignant and well-painted genre scene by Charles Blauvelt, dated 1889, was the product of one such search in 1972 for the affordable price, even for me, of $950.