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Lot Essay
RELATED WORKS:
Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm, graphite and gouache on light green paper, 116 x 166 in. (28.1 x 41.1 cm.), Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, New York
Frederic Edwin Church painted Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm in 1867, seven years after he purchased farmland near Hudson, New York from Levi Simmons, a local farmer. The property, known as 'Church's Farm,' would become the site of the artist's celebrated home, Olana.
James Anthony Ryan writes, "From the beginning, Church hoped that 'the farm' as the family called it, would serve as a retreat from an often-painful artistic celebrity. Painting at first in the cottage or in an outbuilding, Church erected a large wood-frame studio in 1864 at the topmost boundary of his property on Long Hill. He no doubt chose this location as it offered the site's broadest panoramas, which he depicted on paper and canvas many times between 1861 and the 1890s. 'I am appalled when I look at the magnificent scenery that encircles my clumsy studio, and then glance at the painted oil-cloth on my easel,' Church wrote to art critic Henry Tuckerman in 1867." (Frederic Edwin Church, Washington, DC, 1989, p. 129)
The Hudson River Valley had deep personal meaning for Church. From his earliest days as an artist in the studio of Thomas Cole, Church was inspired by the landscape of the area, and his love for it continued over the course of his lifetime. Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm reflects this close relationship between the artist and the natural landscape that inspired him early in his career and that would become his permanent home.
An extant sketch dated August 1863 in the collection of the Olana State Historic Site relates closely to Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm. The identical outline of Bee Craft Mountain, located to the east from the northeastern boundary of Church's Farm, appears silhouetted against the light-filled sky in Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm. However the foreground and middleground of the painting are quite different from those in the drawing-- an indication that the artist departed from purely topographical renderings to create works of art with more powerful personal associations. Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm exemplifies this approach to landscape painting, as it embodies the special and nearly spiritual relationship between the artist and the land that would become his home.
Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm may have served as a particular reminder of the artist's close association with the land that became so important to him and his family. The painting depicts the topography that Church saw regularly as he traveled to the town of Hudson. The view in the drawing of 1863 and in the painting of 1867 also represents "an overview of his accomplishments as a gentleman farmer after three years' residency. . . Forty-one months after the birth of his first child, he looked toward his farm and the blue mountains he often had sketched as Thomas Cole's student, and felt himself a part of the landscape" (Gerald L. Carr, Frederic Edwin Church: Catalogue Raisonna of Works of Art at Olana State Historic Site, vol. I, Cambridge, England, 1994, p. 288)
Like many of Church's finest paintings, Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm is filled with a powerful and serene sense of American light and space. The clouds in the distant sky are highlighted with delicate touches of pink--a technique the artist learned from his teacher and founder of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole. Other elements in the painting are hallmarks of Church's mature style of landscape painting. For example, the artists has included touches of crimson in the flowering shrubs in the lower right corner. In addition, the middleground surrounding the water is filled with lush trees and grasses painted in deep greens. Just as the land and vegetation is rendered with great care, so too does Church depict the sky and atmosphere with great sensitivity. The moon in the center distance provides a cool, spiritual light as its reflection sparkles on the surface of the water in the middle distance. The overall effect gives the composition a radiance that ranks Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm as a masterwork of Hudson River School painting.
Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm has a highly distinguished history of ownership, as it belonged to the earliest patrons and collectors of American paintings. Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm hung in Robert W. de Forest's New York home on Washington Square North. In 1872 de Forest, who would serve as president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1913-31, married Emily Johnston, the daughter of John Taylor Johnston, a founder and first president of the Metropolitan in 1870. John Taylor Johnston was an active patron and collector of Hudson River School paintings. A friend and patron of Frederic Edwin Church, Johnston was a member of the Union League Club, as was the artist. Keenly interested in American art, a love nurtured in part through John Taylor Johnston, Edwin W. de Forest and his wife, Emily Johnston de Forest, were the donors of the American Wing to the Metropolitan Museum.
Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm, graphite and gouache on light green paper, 116 x 166 in. (28.1 x 41.1 cm.), Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, New York
Frederic Edwin Church painted Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm in 1867, seven years after he purchased farmland near Hudson, New York from Levi Simmons, a local farmer. The property, known as 'Church's Farm,' would become the site of the artist's celebrated home, Olana.
James Anthony Ryan writes, "From the beginning, Church hoped that 'the farm' as the family called it, would serve as a retreat from an often-painful artistic celebrity. Painting at first in the cottage or in an outbuilding, Church erected a large wood-frame studio in 1864 at the topmost boundary of his property on Long Hill. He no doubt chose this location as it offered the site's broadest panoramas, which he depicted on paper and canvas many times between 1861 and the 1890s. 'I am appalled when I look at the magnificent scenery that encircles my clumsy studio, and then glance at the painted oil-cloth on my easel,' Church wrote to art critic Henry Tuckerman in 1867." (Frederic Edwin Church, Washington, DC, 1989, p. 129)
The Hudson River Valley had deep personal meaning for Church. From his earliest days as an artist in the studio of Thomas Cole, Church was inspired by the landscape of the area, and his love for it continued over the course of his lifetime. Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm reflects this close relationship between the artist and the natural landscape that inspired him early in his career and that would become his permanent home.
An extant sketch dated August 1863 in the collection of the Olana State Historic Site relates closely to Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm. The identical outline of Bee Craft Mountain, located to the east from the northeastern boundary of Church's Farm, appears silhouetted against the light-filled sky in Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm. However the foreground and middleground of the painting are quite different from those in the drawing-- an indication that the artist departed from purely topographical renderings to create works of art with more powerful personal associations. Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm exemplifies this approach to landscape painting, as it embodies the special and nearly spiritual relationship between the artist and the land that would become his home.
Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm may have served as a particular reminder of the artist's close association with the land that became so important to him and his family. The painting depicts the topography that Church saw regularly as he traveled to the town of Hudson. The view in the drawing of 1863 and in the painting of 1867 also represents "an overview of his accomplishments as a gentleman farmer after three years' residency. . . Forty-one months after the birth of his first child, he looked toward his farm and the blue mountains he often had sketched as Thomas Cole's student, and felt himself a part of the landscape" (Gerald L. Carr, Frederic Edwin Church: Catalogue Raisonna of Works of Art at Olana State Historic Site, vol. I, Cambridge, England, 1994, p. 288)
Like many of Church's finest paintings, Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm is filled with a powerful and serene sense of American light and space. The clouds in the distant sky are highlighted with delicate touches of pink--a technique the artist learned from his teacher and founder of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole. Other elements in the painting are hallmarks of Church's mature style of landscape painting. For example, the artists has included touches of crimson in the flowering shrubs in the lower right corner. In addition, the middleground surrounding the water is filled with lush trees and grasses painted in deep greens. Just as the land and vegetation is rendered with great care, so too does Church depict the sky and atmosphere with great sensitivity. The moon in the center distance provides a cool, spiritual light as its reflection sparkles on the surface of the water in the middle distance. The overall effect gives the composition a radiance that ranks Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm as a masterwork of Hudson River School painting.
Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm has a highly distinguished history of ownership, as it belonged to the earliest patrons and collectors of American paintings. Bee Craft Mountain from Church's Farm hung in Robert W. de Forest's New York home on Washington Square North. In 1872 de Forest, who would serve as president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1913-31, married Emily Johnston, the daughter of John Taylor Johnston, a founder and first president of the Metropolitan in 1870. John Taylor Johnston was an active patron and collector of Hudson River School paintings. A friend and patron of Frederic Edwin Church, Johnston was a member of the Union League Club, as was the artist. Keenly interested in American art, a love nurtured in part through John Taylor Johnston, Edwin W. de Forest and his wife, Emily Johnston de Forest, were the donors of the American Wing to the Metropolitan Museum.