Lot Essay
In 1924, the year the present work was painted, Swedish-born Gunnar Widforss exhibited a large group of works depicting scenes from U.S. National Parks, including Yellowstone, Zion, Bryce, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The director at the time, E.H. Holmes, praised the works, "These are the finest things of their kind that have come out of the west. He is possibly the greatest watercolorist in America today." (Gunnar Widforss: Painter of the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Arizona, 1969, p. 25)
The present work has been assigned number 318 in Alan Petersen’s online catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work.