Lot Essay
The early years of the 1870s were a turning point in the career of Alfred Thompson Bricher. By this time the artist had mastered the aesthetic of the Hudson River School and he was increasingly attracted to the shoreline around Narrangansett Bay.
Bricher executed Autumn Landscape in 1870 at the height of his interest in the Hudson River School, and the picture reflects all the hallmarks of the finest pictures of the genre. The artist has built up the pigment across the composition with exquisite facility, especially in the row of trees at left. Furthermore he has observed the unique qualities of luminist atmosphere. J.D. Preston has written, "The exhilarating calm of an Indian Summer morning is on full display, and a kind of minor prophecy takes place before our eyes. Even as autumn clears the air and sounds a note of the future, this picture . . . heralds a change." ("Alfred Thompson Bricher," The Art Quarterly, Summer 1962, pp. 152-153)
J.D. Preston continues, "In his own quiet, solid way [Bricher] was very much an individualist. He had his own colors, his own themes and preferences. For instance, he had a strong architectural sense, and almost all his oil paintings, large or small, are horizontally shaped so as to give a level, stable, formal look to the scene. He could paint the sky above him in all its clarity and volume surpassingly, and he took a certain joy in the actual paint itself as living matter, as something that could stand out from the canvas and carry its own weight." ("Alfred Thompson Bricher," p. 149)
Bricher executed Autumn Landscape in 1870 at the height of his interest in the Hudson River School, and the picture reflects all the hallmarks of the finest pictures of the genre. The artist has built up the pigment across the composition with exquisite facility, especially in the row of trees at left. Furthermore he has observed the unique qualities of luminist atmosphere. J.D. Preston has written, "The exhilarating calm of an Indian Summer morning is on full display, and a kind of minor prophecy takes place before our eyes. Even as autumn clears the air and sounds a note of the future, this picture . . . heralds a change." ("Alfred Thompson Bricher," The Art Quarterly, Summer 1962, pp. 152-153)
J.D. Preston continues, "In his own quiet, solid way [Bricher] was very much an individualist. He had his own colors, his own themes and preferences. For instance, he had a strong architectural sense, and almost all his oil paintings, large or small, are horizontally shaped so as to give a level, stable, formal look to the scene. He could paint the sky above him in all its clarity and volume surpassingly, and he took a certain joy in the actual paint itself as living matter, as something that could stand out from the canvas and carry its own weight." ("Alfred Thompson Bricher," p. 149)