Payne Fine Arts announces the acquisition of three pieces of some interest to collectors of antique Kentucky art.

First is a small watercolor by William Hunleigh (1848-1916) titled “Edge of the Field.”  Hunleigh was a Kentucky native and a colleague of Paul Sawyier; both men shared Franklin County roots and loved painting scenes along picturesque Elkhorn Creek.  Hunleigh was the subject of a retrospective in 2008 at the Georgetown & Scott County Museum in Georgetown, Kentucky.

Second is another watercolor/gouache, this by Marvin Eddy, a Louisville artist. Eddy, who died in 1914, suffered several setbacks in his career including a fire that destroyed his studio, and he is said to have died at an early age. Eddy was a native of Hannibal, Missouri, and settled in Louisville sometime in the late 19th century. He studied with local artists Clarence Boyd and Hewett Green, works by both of whom are as rare as Eddy’s. Eddy participated in the Jamestown Ter-centennial Exposition of 1907, painting portraits of Kentucky pioneers Simon Kenton and John Filson, and was superintendent of fine arts for Kentucky at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.

The third acquisition is better-known, George Caleb Bingham’s “The County Election.” The stipple and line engraving was done in 1854 after Bingham’s painting by celebrated American printmaker John Sartain and published by Goupil & Co. Bingham promoted the policies of the Whig Party and toured Kentucky, the home of Whig hero Henry Clay, to sell this print.

Payne Fine Arts specializes in artists who worked in Kentucky, Southern Indiana, the Ohio River Valley and the Deep South. The inventory also includes works on paper from France, Britain and the United States produced in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The current online exhibition features artists who worked in or trained in Chicago, Illinois.

For more information visit http://www.paynefinearts.com/