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Lot Essay
Sanford Gifford's masterful depictions of the nineteenth-century American landscape are exceptionally articulate visions of nature. Gifford's compositions, complemented by his inspired use of light and atmosphere to convey emotion, are among the most progressive of the period. The present work, Tappan Zee, is a superb example of the artist's conception of Luminism.
According to Dr. Ila Weiss, the present work "is a long-lost, well-documented, important late painting by Sanford R. Gifford. It was listed by the artist as one of his 'Chief Pictures,' dated 1879-80, on a copy in his possession of an autobiographical letter sent to the Rev. Octavius Brooks Frothingham in 1874; and it is listed as #715 in the Gifford Memorial Catalogue (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1881), dated 1880 and owned by Malcolm Graham, a New York military equipment dealer (Schuyler, Hartley and Graham) who was amassing a private art collection at this time."
Dr. Weiss further notes, "Tappan Zee is one of several paintings by Gifford that explore the effects of sails in luminous atmosphere on the lake-like, open portions of the Hudson River--the contiguous Haverstraw Bay and Tappan Zee to its north--from the east bank, with the Palisades beyond. A critic reviewing the whole gamut of the artist's work at the Gifford Memorial Exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1880 perceptively observed, 'The Hudson touches him profoundly and in certain humors and moods finds memorable interpretation, especially the lower Hudson, in the sleepy stretches of the Tappan Zee and Palisades.' ("Science and Art: The Metropolitan Art Museum," Christian Union, 22:8, November 3, 1880, p. 373.)
Tappan Zee displays Gifford's consummate mastery as a colorist. The irridescent field of air is gray-blue at the top edge and in reflection at the bottom, imperceptibly blending toward a pinkish glow at the horizon. Autumnal foliage is suggested simply by highlights of pink-yellows and warm pinks on the warm brown underpainting of the woods, with more distant trees paled to dull yellow in haze. Now stretching over the river more widely and gracefully than before at the point of land, a glowing tree is conjured with pale pink-yellow impasto against the ineffable, luminous atmosphere. With its reflection, the tree's curved shape cradles the dory, its fisherman's pink top and yellow-white seine producing their own long, dramatic, answering reflections, echoed by those of the train-watchers. In the far distance, almost imperceptible touches of salmon light near the top of the Palisades suggest its solid form through haze; and the palest touches of white on some of the sails penciled in along the horizon almost vanish in luminous air, the essence of his artistry." (unpublished letter dated 13 February 2013)
A letter from the recognized expert, Dr. Ila Weiss, accompanies this lot. We wish to thank her for her assistance with cataloguing.
According to Dr. Ila Weiss, the present work "is a long-lost, well-documented, important late painting by Sanford R. Gifford. It was listed by the artist as one of his 'Chief Pictures,' dated 1879-80, on a copy in his possession of an autobiographical letter sent to the Rev. Octavius Brooks Frothingham in 1874; and it is listed as #715 in the Gifford Memorial Catalogue (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1881), dated 1880 and owned by Malcolm Graham, a New York military equipment dealer (Schuyler, Hartley and Graham) who was amassing a private art collection at this time."
Dr. Weiss further notes, "Tappan Zee is one of several paintings by Gifford that explore the effects of sails in luminous atmosphere on the lake-like, open portions of the Hudson River--the contiguous Haverstraw Bay and Tappan Zee to its north--from the east bank, with the Palisades beyond. A critic reviewing the whole gamut of the artist's work at the Gifford Memorial Exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1880 perceptively observed, 'The Hudson touches him profoundly and in certain humors and moods finds memorable interpretation, especially the lower Hudson, in the sleepy stretches of the Tappan Zee and Palisades.' ("Science and Art: The Metropolitan Art Museum," Christian Union, 22:8, November 3, 1880, p. 373.)
Tappan Zee displays Gifford's consummate mastery as a colorist. The irridescent field of air is gray-blue at the top edge and in reflection at the bottom, imperceptibly blending toward a pinkish glow at the horizon. Autumnal foliage is suggested simply by highlights of pink-yellows and warm pinks on the warm brown underpainting of the woods, with more distant trees paled to dull yellow in haze. Now stretching over the river more widely and gracefully than before at the point of land, a glowing tree is conjured with pale pink-yellow impasto against the ineffable, luminous atmosphere. With its reflection, the tree's curved shape cradles the dory, its fisherman's pink top and yellow-white seine producing their own long, dramatic, answering reflections, echoed by those of the train-watchers. In the far distance, almost imperceptible touches of salmon light near the top of the Palisades suggest its solid form through haze; and the palest touches of white on some of the sails penciled in along the horizon almost vanish in luminous air, the essence of his artistry." (unpublished letter dated 13 February 2013)
A letter from the recognized expert, Dr. Ila Weiss, accompanies this lot. We wish to thank her for her assistance with cataloguing.