Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823–1880)
An October Afternoon, 1865
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Oil on canvas
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12 ¼ x 9 ⅞ inches - Framed: 24 x 21 1/2 inches
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Signed and dated lower left: SR Gifford / 65
Provenance
- The artist
- (Probably) George B. Coale, Baltimore, Maryland, acquired from above, 1865
- (Probably) Samuel Putnam Avery, acquired from above, before 1881
- Alexander Gallery, New York, New York, by 1986
- Richard A. Manoogian, Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan
- Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory Services, New York, New York
- Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York, acquired from above, 2003
- Henry and Sharon Martin, Connecticut, acquired from above, 2003
- Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York, acquired from above, 2010
- Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory Services, New York, New York, acquired from above, 2010
- Collection of J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox
Exhibited
Sanford R. Gifford, Alexander Gallery, New York, New York, March 20–April 19, 1986, no. 30
For Spacious Skies: Hudson River School Paintings from the Henry and Sharon Martin Collection, New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut, June 10–September 25, 2005; National Academy of Design, New York, February 9–April 20, 2006, no. 8
Bold, Cautious, True: Walt Whitman and American Art of the Civil war Era, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee, July 5-October 4, 2009; Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York, October 18, 2009-January 24, 2010, 144-145, no. 10
Literature
(Probably) John F. Weir, A Memorial Catalogue of the Paintings of Sanford Robinson Gifford, N. A. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1881), 31, no. 411 (as An October Afternoon, A Small Study).
Ila Weiss, Sanford R. Gifford (New York: Alexander Gallery, 1986), 9, no. 30.
Ila Weiss, Poetic Landscape: The Art and Experience of Sanford R. Gifford (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1987), 9, 252, 321, 333n21.
Important American Paintings, Volume IV (New York: Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, 2003), cover image, plate 21.
Kevin J. Avery and Franklin Kelly, eds., Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003), 49n76.
Kevin Sharp, For Spacious Skies: Hudson River School Paintings from the Henry and Sharon Martin Collection, (New Britain, CT: New Britain Museum of American Art, 2005), 51–52, no. 8, 55, back cover image.
Kevin Sharp, Bold, Cautious, True: Walt Whitman and American Art of the Civil war Era (Memphis, Tennessee, 2009), 144-145, plate 44 (cat. no. 10)
Note
Note I: Numerous depictions of Kauterskill Clove in the Catskill Mountains by Gifford were extremely important to his exploration and development of aerial luminism, his groundbreaking and influential style. The deep gorge stretching between the viewer and the falls allowed Gifford to focus his attention on the light, haze, and atmosphere filling the vast void in front of him. He returned to the subject for nearly twenty years, and examples from this series are in some of the most important museum and private collections of American painting.
Note II: In the fall of 1865, Gifford painted An October Afternoon, a view based on sketches he produced at Sunset Point on the rim of Kauterskill Clove. [1]
Note III: This painting is one of the studies for a large painting of the same title (54 by 41 inches), exhibited at the National Academy in 1866 …. The painting was to be engraved as “Sunset in the Adirondacks”…. A mental comparison of the familiar Kauterskill Clove at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, similar in vertical format and composition, will demonstrate that the primary objective of An October Afternoon is to covey a mood, pensive and somber… Painted at the end of the Civil War, it seems to express a longing for a national ideal, threatened if not entirely lost, represented by the elusive wilderness imagery – an idea framed for contemplation: nostalgic and foreboding. [2]
[1] Kevin Sharp, Bold, Cautious, True: Walt Whitman and American Art of the Civil War Era (Memphis, Tennessee, 2009) p. 145
[2] Ila Weiss, Reflections on Gifford’s Art, Sanford R. Gifford (New York; Alexander Gallery, 1986
Related Work
- In the Catskills (A Catskill Study), 1861. oil on canvas, 14 1/4 x 24 inches, signed and dated S R Gifford / 1861: Private collection, Illustrated in Hudson River School Visions, The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York), p. 129, no. 20
- A Sketch in Kauterskill Clove, ca. 1861, oil on canvas, 13 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches; Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- A Gorge in the Mountains (Kauterskill Clove), 1862, oil on canvas, 48 x 39 7/8 inches, signed and dated lower left: SR Gifford / 1862; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
- Kauterskill Clove, in the Catskills, 1862, oil on canvas, 12 7/8 x 11 1/16 inches, signed and dated lower left: S R Gifford / 1862; Jo Ann and Julian Ganz Jr., Los Angeles, California
- An October Afternoon, oil on canvas laid down on masonite, 11 1/4 x 10 inches; Fleming Museum of Art, Burlington, Vermont
- An October Afternoon, 1865, oil on canvas, 48 x 51 inches, signed and dated lower left: S R Gifford 1865; unlocated, illustrated in Nicolai Cikovsky Jr., Sanford Robinson Gifford (Austin, TX: University of Texas Art Museum, 1970), 56, no. 30.
- An October Afternoon, Kauterskill Falls, 1868, oil on canvas, 14 x 12 inches; Collection of Thomas Davies, Connecticut
- Kauterskill Clove, Catskill Mountains, 1880, oil on canvas, 13 1/4 x 10 5/8 inches; The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
- October in the Catskills, 1880, oil on canvas, 36 5/16 x 29 3/16 inches; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
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