Sketches

Two collections of oil studies and sketches have been discovered, one taken out of his Manchester studio 50 years ago and the other lost in the attic of Red Echo Farm in Vermont until 2004. Other studies were apparently destroyed in the early 1950s after other paintings were distributed to Cheney's family, friends, museums and colleges as gifts.

Among the oil sketches left in Vermont between 1916 and 1921 are a group of canvases painted in Rockport, MA, that are the only evidence of his visit to that location.The newly found sketches from the studio show that Cheney often painted sketches as oil on French panel or in oil on canvas. Some clearly contributed to the later treatment of known and signed paintings.

Some larger panels were occasionally exhibited themselves, indicated by his ink signature on the front and titles in pencil on the reverse of the panel or upper stretcher. These titles can be found in catalogs of his early exhibits.