Past Exhibition

Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford

A dirt path winds through a field of gold-green grass back to a town built on low hills in this horizontal, densely hazy landscape painting. Several minuscule people walk on the path and at least one person rides a horse. More people are gathered by a domed, white structure in the distance, where the winding path meets a straighter road leading up into the town near the left edge of the canvas. At least six people sit or stand near a conical white tepee to the right, in the lower quadrant. Two horses and about two dozen smaller animals graze nearby. In the town, the cluster of low, flat-topped buildings, the one domed building with two slender minarets, and palm trees are painted in tones of muted mauve pink and peach. The sun is painted as a hot blaze of light low in the washed-out sky over rocky mountains, which stretch across the left half of the composition. The artist signed and dated the painting with angular red letters in the lower right corner, “S.R. Gifford 1874.”
Sanford Robinson Gifford, Siout, Egypt, 1874, oil on canvas, New Century Fund, Gift of Joan and David Maxwell, 1999.7.1

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Main Floor, Galleries 72 through 77
A dirt path winds through a field of gold-green grass back to a town built on low hills in this horizontal, densely hazy landscape painting. Several minuscule people walk on the path and at least one person rides a horse. More people are gathered by a domed, white structure in the distance, where the winding path meets a straighter road leading up into the town near the left edge of the canvas. At least six people sit or stand near a conical white tepee to the right, in the lower quadrant. Two horses and about two dozen smaller animals graze nearby. In the town, the cluster of low, flat-topped buildings, the one domed building with two slender minarets, and palm trees are painted in tones of muted mauve pink and peach. The sun is painted as a hot blaze of light low in the washed-out sky over rocky mountains, which stretch across the left half of the composition. The artist signed and dated the painting with angular red letters in the lower right corner, “S.R. Gifford 1874.”
Sanford Robinson Gifford, Siout, Egypt, 1874, oil on canvas, New Century Fund, Gift of Joan and David Maxwell, 1999.7.1

Overview: 70 landscape paintings were displayed in this survey of the work of American painter Sanford R. Gifford, the first exhibition dedicated to the artist in more than 30 years.  Inspired by the natural world, Gifford explored the effects of light and atmosphere in his depictions of the Hudson River valley, the Catskill Mountains, and various sites abroad. 3 paintings were shown at the Washington venue only: Morning in the Adirondacks and Sunset in the Shawangunk Mountains from the Westervelt-Warner Museum of American Art, on loan from the Warner Collection of Gulf States Paper Corporation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and View from South Mountain in the Catskills on loan from the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

A special 8-part series of lectures on landscape painting presented by staff and visiting lecturers was held in conjunction with the exhibition.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The curators were Franklin Kelly, senior curator of American and British paintings at the National Gallery, and Kevin J. Avery, associate curator, with the assistance of Claire A. Conway, research assistant, department of American paintings and sculpture, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Sponsor: The exhibition was supported by the Henry Luce Foundation.

Attendance: 85,414

Catalog: Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford, edited by Kevin J. Avery and Franklin Kelly. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.

Other Venues:

  • Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/07/2003–02/08/2004
  • Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, 03/06/2004–05/16/2004

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