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Lot Essay
The Sacramento River Delta series was a direct departure from Wayne Thiebaud's famed cityscapes, which exaggerated the steep terrain of San Francisco's topography, shifting his focus to the rural landscapes of Northern California. Featuring the flat, fertile farmland of the Sacramento River Valley, River Bend Farms, with its intense vibrant colors and golden hues, emphasize the interlocking geometry of teh planar composition which truly verges on abstraction. Working in the Sacramento River Valley, the same year as the present work, Thiebaud noted, "... the (series) that I'm working on now has to do with the river and the way in which agricultural patterns relate to the river. A lot of that does have to do with an aerial perspective.... It's such a seductive enterprise, to paint a river, the reflections, the prettiness of it, and so on." (W. Thiebaud as quoted in S. McGough, "Thiebaud Selects Thiebaud, A Forty-Year survey from Private Collections," exh. cat., Crocker Art Museum, 1996).
As a child, Thiebaud spent many summers on his grandfather's California ranch, which undoubtedly influenced his personal attachment to landscape painting. This firsthand experience to farming was a major influence for this particular series. "These paintings have something to do with the love of that and in some ways the idea of replicating the experience" (W. Thiebaud as quoted in S. Dalkey, "Wayne Thiebaud's Rural Landscapes." Wayne Thiebaud, Rural Landscapes, exh. cat., San francisco, Campbell-Thiabud Gallery, 1977).
In River Bend Farms, the landscape fills the picture plane. Thiebaud paints fields in unexpected hues: candy pink, vibrant purple and baby blue--with toy-like trees standing along their edges. The river itself slithers from the horizon that is pushed to the very upper edge of the panel, flowing down to the lower edge alongside a small crop of vegetation. The true sense of the Northern California countryside and the radiant California light is clearly illustrated in River Bend Farms, with the richness of the planar landscape that is matched by the richness of the artist's candy-like palette.
As a child, Thiebaud spent many summers on his grandfather's California ranch, which undoubtedly influenced his personal attachment to landscape painting. This firsthand experience to farming was a major influence for this particular series. "These paintings have something to do with the love of that and in some ways the idea of replicating the experience" (W. Thiebaud as quoted in S. Dalkey, "Wayne Thiebaud's Rural Landscapes." Wayne Thiebaud, Rural Landscapes, exh. cat., San francisco, Campbell-Thiabud Gallery, 1977).
In River Bend Farms, the landscape fills the picture plane. Thiebaud paints fields in unexpected hues: candy pink, vibrant purple and baby blue--with toy-like trees standing along their edges. The river itself slithers from the horizon that is pushed to the very upper edge of the panel, flowing down to the lower edge alongside a small crop of vegetation. The true sense of the Northern California countryside and the radiant California light is clearly illustrated in River Bend Farms, with the richness of the planar landscape that is matched by the richness of the artist's candy-like palette.