Samuel Colman (1832–1920)
Twilight on the Western Plains, ca. 1870
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Oil on canvas
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30 x 40 inches
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Signed lower right: Samuel Colman.
Provenance
- William A. Hamilton, by 1876
- Edward Eberstadt & Sons, New York, New York
- Kennedy Galleries, New York, New York
- Sale, Christie’s, New York, New York, May 23, 1979, lot 67
- Jim Fowler’s Period Gallery West, Scottsdale, Arizona
- Private collection, St. Helena, California
- Nedra Matteucci Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, from above
- Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York, acquired from above, 2016
- Collection of J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox
Exhibited
Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, New York, 1871, no. 152
Centennial Exhibition, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 10–November 10, 1876, no. 463
Literature
“The Spring Exhibition at the Academy of Design,” Appletons’ Journal of Literature, Science, and Art 5, no. 113 (May 1871): 620.
“Art,” The Aldine 4, no. 6 (June 1871): 99–100.
International Exhibition 1876 Official Catalogue, Part II: Art Gallery, Annexes, and Outdoor Works of Art (Philadelphia: Centennial Catalogue Company, 1876), 30, no. 463.
Clara Erskine Clement and Laurence Hutton, Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works: A Handbook Containing Two Thousand and Fifty Biographical Sketches (Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1879), 1: 148.
Natalie Spassky et al., American Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Volume II; A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1816 and 1845 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985), 349–50.
Note
According to a review in a June 1871 issue of The Aldine, “Colman’s ‘Twilight on the Western Plains’ is, perhaps, the most thoroughly vigorous and naturalistic bit of landscape in the exhibition. The creamy delicacy of the upper cirrhus strata relieved against the heavier and richer purple of the low lying clouds—the whole blended in the rich crimson and orange of the dying west—is one of the best effects of his we have seen.” [1]
“In 1871 he exhibited his first frontier scene at the National Academy of Design, Twilight on the Western Plains (unlocated), inaugurating a series of works depicting the westward voyage of the American pioneer. His wilderness landscapes ceased temporarily at the end of 1871, as he embarked upon an extended tour of Europe…. In the late 1880s, Colman apparently resumed his western excursions, visiting Colorado, the Yosemite Valley in California, the Canadian Rockies, and Mexico.”[2]
[1] “Art,” The Aldine 4, no. 6 (June 1871): 99.
[2] Natalie Spassky et al., American Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Volume II; A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1816 and 1845 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985), 349–50.
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A Collector’s Journey
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