Andres Molinary (American/New Orleans, 1847-1915) , "City Park, Old Allard Plantation, New Orleans", oil on canvas, signed lower right, 15 in. x 24 in., framed Provenance: Mary Helen Washburn, student of Andres Molinary at Newcomb College, New Orleans, LA; thence by descent. Note: As a young man in his twenties, Andres Molinary left his native Gibraltar for New Orleans with the intention of visiting his uncle, who was a partner in an importing business. After several years of traveling throughout Mexico and Central America, Molinary settled permanently in the Crescent City in 1876. With the encouragement of his uncle, Molinary pursued a career as an artist and eventually opened an art studio. He soon earned portrait commissions and furthered his interest in landscape and genre painting. Always engaging and popular, Molinary's studio became a gathering place for the coterie of local artists and writers. As an active member of the local art community, Molinary was instrumental in the founding of the Cup and Saucer Club, Southern Art Union and Artists' Association of New Orleans. The unique landscape of southern Louisiana fascinated the artist. As New Orleans began to expand its environs beyond the French Quarter and the surrounding areas near the Mississippi River, Molinary documented the growth of the city. Many of his landscape paintings depict the developing, but still clearly rural, communities on the outskirts of the growing city. In the work offered here, Molinary depicts a slightly different view of the same scene sold in these rooms on February 20, 2016. The Allard family had possession of the land along Bayou St. John from the late 1700s to 1845, when it was acquired by businessman John McDonogh. He willed the land to the cities of New Orleans and Baltimore upon his death in 1850, around the same time a movement within the country to construct urban parks was taking shape. In 1859, New Orleans resolved ownership with Baltimore and declared the land a public park. The space that would become City Park remained largely undeveloped until the late 1890s, providing the perfect subject for Molinary.