The Stevens-Duryea Limousine

William Harnden Foster trained at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and was known especially for his sporting pictures, dog portraits and images of steam engines. His successes as an artist lead to magazine assignments and corporate advertising. In 1910 Oldsmobile commissioned Foster to illustrate the luxury Oldsmobile Limited with an image titled “Setting the Pace”, and with this Foster also became an automobile illustrator. This is an original artwork used to advertise a Stevens-Duryea Motor Car Company (Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts) “C-Six” Limousine. The Stevens-Duryea Motor Company was founded in 1901 by J. Frank Duryea (an automobile designer) and the J. Stevens Arms and Tools Company. The company was known for its quality and craftmanship but by 1915 it was voluntarily closed due to a weak economic market. Foster’s idyllic painting of the company’s “C-Six” Limousine is set on a prairie with a cloudy sky and river in the backdrop. Seven people are seated in the spacious limousine and it would seem good value for money as the automobile was priced at $5.800 in 1914.