Ruins of the Parthenon

1880

Sanford Robinson Gifford

Associated Names
Sanford Robinson Gifford

Painter, American, 1823 - 1880

A view across a wide, brightly lit field scattered with broken pieces of stone is framed to the left and right by crumbling stone temples in this horizontal painting. The sunlight is infused with a soft pink glow, which warms the cream-white stone with a pale blush. The temple on our left sits on a low rise, and a row of at least nine columns topped with an entablature faces our right. Several of the columns are broken off, and part of the entablature and the entire roof is missing, from what we can see. Fragments of pediments and wheel-like sections of columns tumble down from its front steps and back along its side, cascading into and across most of the field before us. The rocky terrain is carpeted in celery-green growth speckled with sage green and areas of rust red in the lower left and right corners. Barely visible in the center of the field, are two men, barely taller than the fragments they inspect. One man wears an apricot-orange suit and bowler hat over blond hair. He kneels with his back to us as he writes or sketches on a piece of paper. A second man stands to his right, also with his back to us, dressed in a long pleated, white tunic with a red cap, jacket, and knee-high boots. To our right and farther back than the other temple, a brick-red tower stands next to another columned arcade. A third temple there, or perhaps another part of that building complex, has columns carved into the shape of six identical, robed women, facing our left. Beyond the ruins, the field slopes down to a peach-colored plain that ends at a wide, topaz-blue body of water with mountains in the far distance along the low horizon line. A petal-pink haze rises from the water and mountains and almost fills the blue-gray sky above. The artist has signed and dated the painting in the lower left, “S.R. Gifford 1880.”

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Morning sunlight washes over the Parthenon, warming the ruins and scattered fragments of this ancient Greek temple. In the background, the sky shifts from pale pink to deep blue. Two tiny figures appear before the broken marble: a Greek guide and an artist who kneels to sketch.

Sanford Robinson Gifford painted this scene based on sketches made on his visit to Athens in 1869. Rather than focusing solely on the Acropolis, he chose to capture a moment in time, describing the painting as “not a picture of a building, but a picture of a day.”

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery M67

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Estate of the artist; purchased 12 April 1881 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1880

  • Fifty-fith Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, March-May 1880, no. 261.

  • The Memorial Collection of the Works of the Late Sanford R. Gifford, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 1880-March 1881, no. 27, as The Parthenon.

1949

  • De Gustibus: An Exhibition of American Paintings Illustrating a Century of Taste and Criticism, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, January-February 1949, no. 24.

1959

  • The American Muse: Parallel Trends in Literature and Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959, no. 52.

1970

  • Sanford Robinson Gifford 1823-1880, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin; Albany Institute of History and Art; Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York, 1970-1971, no. 64.

1978

  • American Luminism, Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, 1978, no. 29, repro.

1980

  • American Light: The Luminist Movement, National Gallery of Art, Washington, unnumbered catalogue.

2003

  • Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sandord R. Gifford, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2003-2004, no. 70.

2005

  • Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton NY; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte NC; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 46.

2008

  • The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, unpublished checklist.

  • Nature as Nation: 19th-Century American Landscapes from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 30 August 2008-18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.

2009

  • American Paintings from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 June-18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

1882

  • Macleod, William. Catalogue of the Paintings, Statuary, Casts, Bronzes, &c. of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1882: 44, no. 15.

1887

  • Macleod, William. Catalogue of the Paintings, Statuary, Casts, Bronzes, &c. of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1887: 45, no. 15.

1947

  • Corcoran Gallery of Art. Handbook of the American Paintings in the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1947: 39.

2011

  • Kelly, Franklin. "Sanford Robinson Gifford, Ruins of the Parthenon." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 11, 150-151, 269, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: S.R. Gifford 1880

Wikidata ID

Q20188867

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