Frederick Weygold (Kentucky 1870-1941) Oil on board 9” x 1`4 1/4”. Original Frame 13 1/4” x 19”. Signed lower right, F.W. Painted 1920.
Frederick P. Weygold was born in St. Charles, Missouri in 1870, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Germany. In 1914 he moved to Louisville, where he was very influential in the development of local art and artists. Weygold was very interested in the Sioux Tribe and amassed a vast collection of artifacts which he donated to the Speed Museum. He died in Louisville in 1941.
This rare painting shows Federal Hill, in 1920 before it was purchased by the state and became My Old Kentucky Home State Park. Federal Hill was built between 1795 and 1818 by Judge John Rowan. The Marquis de Lafayette, Stephen Foster, Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay all visited Judge Rowan at Federal Hill. Weygold was friends with Madge Rowan Frost (the last heir of Federal Hill Farm) and painted a series of these paintings to help raise awareness of the property and encourage the Commonwealth of Kentucky to purchase the property.
Typed inscription on back reads:
“ The Sun Shines Bright in the Old Kentucky Home”. Just a little reminder to Mary Alice and Irwin Gernert from Frieda and Frederick Weygold that the sun shines somewhere, even if it is gloomy in Nashville. Federal Hill near Bardstown, Ky as it appeared in the summer of 1920 before it became a state reservation. It was in this house, built in about 1800 (1818), that Stephen Foster wrote (in about 1859) America’s most beautiful folksong “My Old Kentucky Home.”
Provenance: Given by the artist and his wife to Mary Alice and Irwin Gernert or Nashville, Tennessee.