Provenance

Robert Gilmor, Jr.

American, 1774 - 1848

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Hulking mountains are mostly backlit against a watery blue sky edged with shell pink along the horizon, which comes about two-thirds of the way up this horizontal landscape painting. Light falls across felled and gnarled trees along the bottom edge of the canvas. Two thin trunks, one of them broken to a jagged point, rise along the left edge of the composition with their green leaves outlined against the sky. The land dips steeply away into a valley wending between forested mountains. Fog has settled along the valley like a river of mist. The mountains lighten from dark, earthy green and brown close to us to muted fawn-brown in the distance. A sliver of pale-yellow sun peeks over the summit of the nearest mountain, which is to our left. Clouds kick up over the distant mountaintops, and a few wisps of peach-colored clouds float across the blue sky above. The artist signed and dated the work in black paint on a branch on the ground in the lower center, “T. Cole 1826.”
Thomas Cole, Sunrise in the Catskills, 1826, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1989.24.1

Sunrise in the Catskills

Thomas Cole · 1826 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1989.24.1

Three light-skinned men, one with his head and knee bandaged, sit and stand around a rusty, free-standing stove in a room with wide plank floors in this horizontal painting. In the center of the room and painting, glowing embers burn in the box-like stove and a long chimney pipe extends up off the back. A glass with amber liquid, a clay-brown mug, and a long, white pipe rest on top of the stove. To our left of the stove, the injured man sits on a broken-backed chair with his feet angled to our right. He leans forward and points at the man sitting across from him with his right hand. In his left hand, farther from us, he holds a half empty glass, also with amber-colored liquid. His head is wrapped in white cloth and his left knee in a red cloth. He rests that foot on the platform beneath the fireplace, and a wooden crutch leans on his leg. He has ash-brown hair and a five o’clock shadow. He has a rose-pink cravat tied at his throat and wears a cream-colored jacket over a white vest, olive-green pants, and brown shoes. To our right of the stove, a second man sits on a stool, his body angled to our left. He leans forward toward the other man with his feet straddling the platform under the stove. One hand is propped on his thigh and he leans on his other leg with his elbow, smoking a pipe held in that hand. He has curly blond hair, long sideburns, a long, prominent nose, and smoke wafts from his pursed lips. He appears to look past the injured man. He wears a camel-brown coat, charcoal-gray pants, and black shoes. A third man stands behind the smoking man. His body is angled to our right so he stands with his back to the injured man, has face in profile. His head is tipped down so his eyes are hidden under the brim of his hat, and he smiles slightly. He wears a dark brown cloak trimmed with fur and a fur hat with ear flaps folded up. In front of the stove, fire tongs, a log, and wood shavings litter the floor. To our left of the injured man, a black top hat lies on its side with playing cards and a spotted red handkerchief spilling out. Along the back wall, to our right, a built-in cabinet is filled with clear and dark glass bottles and small wooden barrels. A notice has been affixed to the taupe-brown wall, beyond the stove. It begins, “LONG ISLAND RAILROAD,” and is then indistinct. Two other slips of paper with indistinct writing have been nailed to the wall nearby. The artist signed the painting in the lower left corner: “Wm. S. Mount 1837.”
William Sidney Mount, The Tough Story - Scene in a Country Tavern, 1837, oil on wood, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund), 2014.79.28

The Tough Story - Scene in a Country Tavern

William Sidney Mount · 1837 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2014.79.28

Bibliography

1998

  • Humphries, Lance L. Robert Gilmor, Jr. (1774-1848): Baltimore Collector and American Art Patron. Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1998.

2003

  • Minty, Nancy T. Dutch and Flemish Seventeeth-Century Art in America, 1800-1940: Collections, Connoisseurship and Perceptions. Ph.D. diss, New York University, 2003:53-68, 342-374