“King Bird”

James Bard schooner painting

Tear Sheet


James Bard (1815-1897), New York

dated "1855"

oil on canvas laid down to Masonite

29 ½” x 52”

Signed, dated and inscribed lower right “Picture Drawn & Painted by James Bard, 1855./ 162 Perry St. New York/ August… 12”

Provenance: John Lee Pratt; Mr. and Mrs. William E. Wiltshire, III; Estate of Joan Harmon Van Metre

Exhibition: Richmond, Virginia, Virginia Museum, and traveling, “American Folk Painting: Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Wiltshire III,” 29 November 1977 – June 1979 (cat. no. 46).

New York, Museum of American Folk Art, “Celebrate the Hudson,” 28 October – 2 November 1980.

Literature: Woodward, “American Folk Painting: The Wiltshire Collection,” The Magazine Antiques (September 1978), pp. 565-566, illus. Pl. IX; Peluso, Jr., The Bard Brothers: Painting America Under Steam and Sail (1997), p. 168.

King Bird was a schooner built in 1855 by Moses B. Hartt of Northport, Long Island, and was used for hauling freight on Long Island Sound.  It was registered to a Mr. Van Brunt from 1855 to 1862.

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