Waiting for the Stage

1851

Richard Caton Woodville

Associated Names
Richard Caton Woodville
Painter, American, 1825 - 1855
Two men play cards at a wooden table in a tavern while a third stands on the far side of the table between them, wearing green-lensed glasses and reading a newspaper in this horizontal painting. The men have pale skin and ruddy cheeks. The man on our side of the table sits with his back to us in a wood chair painted mustard yellow. He wears a black top hat and a long-tailed coat. He looks down at the splayed playing cards he holds in one hand and he touches the top edges of the cards with the other. A striped traveling bag leans against the table leg next to his chair. Across from him and facing us, a bearded man leans onto the table, arms folded and cards in one hand. He looks at the other player with squinting eyes and lips parted. He wears a blue coat over a striped shirt, and a silver ring on the third finger of one hand. He holds his stacked cards face down that hand and rests the other hand in that elbow. A black top hat sits brim-down on the bench next to him, and, under the table, the toes of the foot we see tilt upward. At least six silver coins and more cards are on the table. A coin purse is near the man wearing black, and a long tray holds an open decanter and a glass, both filled with amber-brown liquid. A silver object, perhaps the handle of a spoon, is propped in the glass and the stopper for the decanter is next to the tray. The man reading the newspaper wears a fur-lined cap and a brown coat over a high-collared white shirt. His neck is wrapped in a blue scarf dotted with white, which is tied at his throat. The newspaper droops toward us to show the masthead, which reads “THE SPY.” In the room behind the trio, a pewter teapot and white teacup sit on a wood-burning stove and shelves hold bottles and small barrels. A snuffed candle is on a shelf next to the stovepipe, near a chalk board about the size of a piece of copier paper. Someone has drawn a man’s bearded face with white chalk on the board. Two postcard-sized papers are tucked into a gold-framed, arch-topped mirror behind the standing man. A few bits of broken white smoking pipes are on and near a round, rust-red container on the wood-plank floor, to our left of the table. The artist signed and dated the work in the lower right corner, “R.C.W. 1851. Paris.”

Media Options

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Although Baltimore native Richard Caton Woodville lived abroad the majority of his short career, his most famous paintings depict life in his hometown. Like his contemporary William Sidney Mount, he portrayed colorful characters in stories marked by humor and deception, but Woodville's canvases assume a darker tone in both composition and subject matter.

In Waiting for the Stage, three men assemble in a tavern, commonly used as a waiting room for stagecoaches. Two of the men are seated at the table, engaged in what appears to be a game of cards; the gentleman with a carpetbag at his side is presumably a traveler. The third figure stands beside the table clutching a newspaper called The Spy. He wears the glasses of a blind man, but his cleverly titled journal betrays his ruse. From his elevated position, he can see both men's cards, and is likely conspiring with the traveler, who may be a conman. Light bounces off the wedding ring of the third individual, reminding the viewer of the existence of family members whose well-being could be threatened by this deceit. The small, cramped space of the tavern underscores the painting's menacing tone.

Woodville painted this scene in Paris, after leaving medical school and moving to Europe in 1845 to pursue painting full-time. He trained in Düsseldorf, Germany, before spending the next four years working in Paris and London. He died in London in 1855 having completed fewer than 15 oil paintings.

On View
West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M65

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist; by descent through his family; (Samuel P. Avery, Jr., New York); purchased 1867 by Lucius Tuckerman, Esq., New York; by descent to Mrs. James Lowndes, Miss Emily Tuckerman, Lucius C. Wolcott, and Walter R. Tuckerman, by 1907. Private collection, by 1959; purchased October 1960 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1867

  • Private Collection of Oil Paintings by American Artists, made by Samuel P. Avery during the past 15 Years and now to be sold on account of his going to Europe, by Henry H. Leeds & Miner's, Henry H. Leeds & Miner Gallery, New York, no. 68.

1909

  • The Lucius Tuckerman Collection, Department of Fine Arts of the National Museum, National Gallery of Art [Smithsonian Institution], Washington, 1909, unnumbered catalogue.

1960

  • American Painters of the South, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1960, no. 122.

1963

  • Progress of an American Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1963, unpublished checklist.

1966

  • Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, unpublished checklist.

1967

  • Richard Caton Woodville: An Early American Genre Painter, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Brooklyn Museum, 1967-1968, no. 17.

1976

  • The American Genius: W.W. Corcoran, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, unnumbered catalogue.

1986

  • Arts in America: The Land of the Free, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1986, no catalogue.

2004

  • Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2004-2005, unpublished checklist.

2005

  • Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 24.

2013

  • New Eyes on America: The Genius of Richard Canton Woodville, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 2013, no. 14.

  • American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

2022

  • Eyesight & Insight: A Lens on American Art, Shelburne Museum, Inc./ Pizzagalli Center for Arts and Education, Shelburne, 2022, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 15.

Bibliography

2011

  • Strong, Lisa. "Richard Catton Woodville, Waiting for the Stage." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 106-107, 262, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: R.C.W. 1851. / Paris

Wikidata ID

Q20188015

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