Our spotlight this month is on Jergen Frederick Huge's The Star,
dated 1838. Huge is a noted American artist and The Star is his
earliest known work. Huge emigrated to the United States as a young
man in the 1830s, he was a trained artist in his native Germany, however,
when he arrived in the United States, he took up the profession of a
butcher (not an unusual occurance for an educated immigrant). After
several years as a result of his developing reputation as a maritime
artist, he was able to maintain his life as a practicing artist and
art teacher. A major retrospective of his work was held in 1970 at the
American Museum of Folk Art and an important catalogue raisonne was
published. The artwork, The Star, was not included in the catalogue
since it was unknown at the time. Several years ago, Huge specialists
were thrilled to discover this painting and verified its authenticity
and asserted it to be the earliest and finest Huge extant.Click on the
image below to enlarge the painting.
