Doctor’s gift was unknown painting by artist John Kane
Last summer, Denise McGinley was sharing dinner with two friends in Squirrel Hill when Mary Lou McLaughlin stopped by her table to say hello.
When McGinley asked what she was reading, McLaughlin showed her a copy of “American Workman: The Life and Art of John Kane,” then introduced one of its authors, Louise Lippincott, an art historian and curator.
McGinley instantly recognized Kane’s name, noting that she owned a painting the largely selftaught artist gave to her late father, Dr. Joseph Addison Perrone.
A prominent ear, nose and throat specialist, Dr. Perrone worked 12-hour days, treating many patients who could not afford medical care at an Oakland clinic in Mercy Hospital. His grateful patients inundated him with cookies, homemade nut rolls, embroidered pillowcases and a colorful afghan at Christmastime.
“Anything he got, he really took care of and he valued it,” said McGinley, who lives in Point Breeze.
Kane’s gift was much more lasting.
He visited Dr. Perrone’s clinic because he suffered from tuberculosis, the disease he died of in 1934. His wife, Maggie, also visited the clinic because she had asthma. Kane worked as a laborer and only
became known as an artist after one of his canvases was exhibited at the Carnegie International exhibition in 1927.
The untitled painting on cardboard, signed in Kane’s signature block letters, shows a hunter and dogs pursuing their prey. “I remember my dad showing it to me,” McGinley said.
“Nobody has touched it,” Lippincott said. “It is in exactly the same state as when Kane gave it to the doctor,” adding that it is in “absolutely perfect shape.”
Delighted to learn of the unknown artwork, Lippincott alerted the Senator John Heinz History Center in the Strip District. The fragile painting, displayed in a glass case, is part of the history center exhibition “Pittsburgh’s John Kane: The Life and Art of an American Workman.” The show opened this summer and runs through Jan. 8, 2023.
Lippincott’s interest in Kane grew during the 27 years she worked as a fine arts curator at Carnegie Museum of Art, where she organized exhibitions before retiring in 2018. The museum holds the largest public collection of Kane’s art in the U.S.
Lippincott and her co-author, Maxwell King, were consultants on the history center’s exhibition, which includes more than 35 artworks by Kane.
An immigrant and devout Catholic from West Calder, Scotland, Kane lived a hardscrabble life while toiling as a laborer on street paving crews, painting rail cars at Pressed Steel Car Co. in McKees Rocks and at rubber plants in Akron, Ohio.
The painting he gave to his doctor measures 12 by 16 inches and is typical of Kane’s genre paintings, Lippincott said.
Many modern Pittsburghers havenever heard of John Kane, said Anne Madarasz, director of the Heinz History Center’s curatorial division and chief historian. That means that more undiscovered Kane paintings could be sitting in the homes of people living in easternOhio or Western Pennsylvania.
“He was actively selling his work or giving it to his employers, to the church, to his friends,” Lippincott said. “It would be cool if more turned up.”
After her husband died in 1934, Maggie Kane sold some of his work.
“When she needed money, she was selling her late husband’s pictures to dealers and collectors,”
Lippincott said.
The devout Catholic also made gifts of Kane’s artwork to Mercy Hospital.
“Paintings are more likely to be discovered once a book or exhibition has called attention to their value,” Lippincott said.
On Thursday, Nov. 10, Lippincott will join a panel of experts to discuss the barriers and challenges artists like John Kane confronted as well as how art museum leaders and collectors perceived their work. Panelists for “Folk and SelfTaught Artists: Redefining American Art” also will outline how the life experience of folk artists affected their creative expression. They will take questions from audience members.
The panel includes two curators from the American Folk Art Museum in New York City and contemporary artist Christine Bethea, the current president of Women of Visions, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based African American visual arts organization. Moderating the hour-long discussion is Jason T. Busch, CEO and director of the American Folk Art Museum and former decorative arts curator at Carnegie Museum of Art, where he reinstalled the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Galleries.
The panel discussion begins at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $20 for nonmembers and $10 for history center members. For tickets or more information, go to www.heinzhistorycenter.org.