FARLEY, James Cardinal
Description:
Three-quarter length, seated. Probably Oil on canvas, 50” x 40” (127 x 101.6 cm).
The Brooklyn Eagle, April 6, 1913, described the picture as follows: ‘In the place of honor are the benevolent, smiling features of Cardinal Farley, and his seated form enveloped in the ecclesiastical robes pertaining to his rank in the Church. These again enforce the rule that every picture has to have in it decoration, but here the artist, in bringing out the kindly look in the eyes of the Cardinal establishes compensation for the brilliant reds and whites in the attire. The anatomy is outlined as far as is possible under the vestments and the portrait as a whole is a valuable human document.’
The New York Evening Post, Saturday April 5, 1913, p. 9, remarked that, ‘Although, of course, the cardinal wears red, the portrait remains without color in the true sense of the word, for the hot, hard red of the robe is not seen in relation to any other part of the picture.’
The New York Evening Telegram, September 21, 1918 added the following details: ‘…A red cloak is thrown over his left arm. The jewelled pectoral cross depends from a cord about his neck and he wears a scarlet biretta. In his left hand he holds a service book. The Cardinal’s hands and the lace of his robe are almost microscopic as to detail.’
Location:
Present Whereabouts Unknown.
Exhibitions:
M. KNOEDLER & CO., 556-558, Fifth Avenue, New York, March 31 – April 12, 1913, No. 3.
RALSTON GALLERY, 567, Fifth Avenue, New York, September/October 1918.
Bibliography:
American Art News, New York, June 5, 1912
New York Herald, April 2, 1913
American Art News, New York, April 5, 1913
New York Evening Post, Saturday April 5, 1913, p. 9
Brooklyn Eagle, April 6, 1913
New Yorker Staats Zeitung, April 6, 1913
New York Evening Telegram, September 21, 1918 – “Cardinal Farley Portrait by Ury A Ralston Show” by W.G. Bowdoin.
American Art News, Vol. 17, No. 1, October 12, 1918, New York, p. 2
Stephen Conrad, ‘Re-Introducing Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862-1947): The Artist, two Dealers, four Counts and the Kaiser: A Hitherto Unknown Episode in International Art History’, in The British Art Journal, Volume IV, No. 2, Summer 2003, pp. 57-65, illustration 10, p.63.
Cardinal John Murphy Farley (1842 – 1918) was the Fourth Archbishop of New York. The sitter was born in Ireland on April 20, 1842; he was created Cardinal on November 27, 1911; he died in New York on September 17, 1918.
There is a photograph by Peter Juley in the artist’s papers. This clearly shows a signature ‘Muller-Ury’ and a painted date lower right of 1914. It may not have been dated by the artist when first exhibited; or there may be two versions of the portrait.
It bears a striking similarity to the artist’s 1919 portrait of Desiré Cardinal Mercier. No obvious changes are visible to the naked eye in the head in that picture (Stiftung Muller-Ury), but it is possible that to save time the artist painted exactly the same pose for Mercier.
