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Lot Essay
A letter from the recognized expert on the artist, Dr. Ila Weiss, accompanies this lot.
Sanford Gifford was consciously drawn to the American landscape at a young age and in 1846, at the age of 23, he embarked on a sketching trip in the Catskills and Berkshires, which in turn fueled his passion for nature. Gifford recalled, "During the Summer of 1846 I made several pedestrian tours among the Catskill Mtns. and the Berkshire Hills, and made a good many sketches from nature. These studies along with the great admiration I felt for the works of Cole developed a strong interest in Landscape Art, and I opened my eyes to a keener perception and more intelligent enjoyment of Nature. Having once enjoyed the absolute freedom of the Landscape painter's life, I was unable to return to portrait painting. From this time my direction in art was determined." (As quoted in I. Weiss, Sanford Robinson Gifford, New York, 1977, p. 26)
White Mountain Scenery likely depicts the Androscoggin River near Shelburne, New Hampshire with Mount Madison, part of the Presidential Range, in the distance. In the present work, with Madison looming over the settlers, Gifford connotes the merging of man's corporeal world with nature's ethereal world. Working to develop paintings beyond the more traditional Hudson River School format, Gifford integrated into his works the broader themes of Jacksonian Manifest Destiny along with the transcendent spiritual beauty of nature. In White Mountain Scenery, while creating a powerful and grand scene of God's nature, Gifford has also presented a picture of quiet solitude, as the pioneers effectively assimilate into an overwhelming expanse of wilderness. As a result, Gifford has rendered an image which is deeply profound and a stunning representation of the artistic, political and social influences of Gifford's day.
According to Dr. Illa Weiss, the present work’s “quintessential pioneer image, a log cabin near woods at the water’s edge, where a wife and children wait to greet the returning father, appears in other paintings by Gifford, including the Cleveland Museum of Art’s large exhibition piece, Home in the Wilderness of 1866—a view of Mt. Hayes, also from the Androscoggin. The pioneer imagery may be traced to Thomas Cole’s Home in the Woods of 1847 (Reynolda House, Winston-Salem, North Carolina) which features the pioneer log cabin in the foreground, its recent clearing strewn with stumps and logs, its resident family greeting their just returning, fisherman father, and descriptive details of their everyday life. Gifford’s imagery, here and elsewhere, sets the cabin and family in the middle distance beyond the telling tree stumps as a small but evocative part of the vista. The symbol of America’s early history becomes a note of nostalgia in a landscape dominated by the distant mountain glowing in haze. The wooded shoreline recedes by degrees of color and tonal modulation into light and air, exalting the effect. A spit of land in the center foreground supports jagged rocks that capture dazzling, raking sunlight, picturesquely doubled in water—a solid jewel juxtaposed to and intensifying the aerial luminous vision—a Gifford stylistic hallmark.” (unpublished letter, dated 6 October 2018)
Sanford Gifford was consciously drawn to the American landscape at a young age and in 1846, at the age of 23, he embarked on a sketching trip in the Catskills and Berkshires, which in turn fueled his passion for nature. Gifford recalled, "During the Summer of 1846 I made several pedestrian tours among the Catskill Mtns. and the Berkshire Hills, and made a good many sketches from nature. These studies along with the great admiration I felt for the works of Cole developed a strong interest in Landscape Art, and I opened my eyes to a keener perception and more intelligent enjoyment of Nature. Having once enjoyed the absolute freedom of the Landscape painter's life, I was unable to return to portrait painting. From this time my direction in art was determined." (As quoted in I. Weiss, Sanford Robinson Gifford, New York, 1977, p. 26)
White Mountain Scenery likely depicts the Androscoggin River near Shelburne, New Hampshire with Mount Madison, part of the Presidential Range, in the distance. In the present work, with Madison looming over the settlers, Gifford connotes the merging of man's corporeal world with nature's ethereal world. Working to develop paintings beyond the more traditional Hudson River School format, Gifford integrated into his works the broader themes of Jacksonian Manifest Destiny along with the transcendent spiritual beauty of nature. In White Mountain Scenery, while creating a powerful and grand scene of God's nature, Gifford has also presented a picture of quiet solitude, as the pioneers effectively assimilate into an overwhelming expanse of wilderness. As a result, Gifford has rendered an image which is deeply profound and a stunning representation of the artistic, political and social influences of Gifford's day.
According to Dr. Illa Weiss, the present work’s “quintessential pioneer image, a log cabin near woods at the water’s edge, where a wife and children wait to greet the returning father, appears in other paintings by Gifford, including the Cleveland Museum of Art’s large exhibition piece, Home in the Wilderness of 1866—a view of Mt. Hayes, also from the Androscoggin. The pioneer imagery may be traced to Thomas Cole’s Home in the Woods of 1847 (Reynolda House, Winston-Salem, North Carolina) which features the pioneer log cabin in the foreground, its recent clearing strewn with stumps and logs, its resident family greeting their just returning, fisherman father, and descriptive details of their everyday life. Gifford’s imagery, here and elsewhere, sets the cabin and family in the middle distance beyond the telling tree stumps as a small but evocative part of the vista. The symbol of America’s early history becomes a note of nostalgia in a landscape dominated by the distant mountain glowing in haze. The wooded shoreline recedes by degrees of color and tonal modulation into light and air, exalting the effect. A spit of land in the center foreground supports jagged rocks that capture dazzling, raking sunlight, picturesquely doubled in water—a solid jewel juxtaposed to and intensifying the aerial luminous vision—a Gifford stylistic hallmark.” (unpublished letter, dated 6 October 2018)