Newport at Night

Dwight Tryon's friend and biographer Henry C. White writes of the artist's inspiration for the present work, "Tryon’s life upon the water in summer naturally afforded constant provocation to record changing effects of sea and sky. As often as not he showed no outward sign of receiving a mental impression, nor did he make any visible notation. On one of the first cruises in his boat, we lay in Newport Harbor for a few days where we had gone to see the cup races. In the dark of night Tryon stood in the companionway of the sloop looking at the brilliant spectacle. There were hundreds of yachts at anchor, their riding lights set, and the soft, rich glow of portholes and cabin windows and the sharper electric lights of the city in the background, all reflected in the water. He commented upon the sparkling fairylike radiance of the scene. Then we went below and turned in. Soon after our return to South Dartmouth a day or two later, he painted this nocturne from memory. He called it ‘Newport at Night.’" (The Life and Art of Dwight William Tyron, Boston, Massachusetts, 1930, p. 66) A contemporary critic praised the resulting composition as "painted with a well-chosen palette and with much feeling for natural mystery." (“American Pictures at the Union League Club,” The Critic, vol. 22, March 18, 1893, p. 171)