KAVANAUGH, John J.

KAVANAUGH, John J. (Dubuque, IA, 1857--Los Angeles, 1937). Kavanaugh, the son of Thomas KAVANAUGH, studied painting at Columbia University with George Inness and Francis Murphy according to Michael D. GIBSON. Kavanaugh moved to California sometime after 1880 as he was listed in the Iowa census as living at home in 1860, 1870, and 1880. The 1909 and 1916-1917Dubuque City Directory located this person at 122 9th.

Gary Germaine, a well-known Dubuque art and antique collector, restored a Kavanaugh painting prior to it being given to the DUBUQUE STAR BREWING COMPANY by Charles Rhomberg, a descendant of the family that operated the brewery through the early 1970s. (1) A favorite subject of Kavanaugh was HORSESHOE BLUFF. In 2022 Germain announced that he would sell a 1919 painting of Horseshoe Bluff done by Kavanaugh. Germain had purchased the painting from a woman in New Jersey who found the print in a frame she had purchased on the Internet. Another painting, "Forest Landscape," and inscribed on the reverse :"Recv from John J. Kavanaugh/July 4, 1919/at Gerrytown, Iowa" was auctioned in 2011.

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Source:

1. Gallo, Matt. "Star Collector Makes Room for Latest Memorabilia," Telegraph Herald, December 9, 1988

Nevans-Pederson, Mary. "New Jersey!?! AWOL Painting Back Home," Telegraph Herald, Jan. 21, 2011

J. J. Kavanaugh Artist-Dubuque. http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=3892&p=localities.northam.usa.states.iowa.counties.dubuque