Lot Essay
RELATED LITERATURE:
John I. H. Baur, ed., "The Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge, 1820-1910", Brooklyn Museum Journal, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn, New York, 1942, p. 42
A.F. Janson, Worthington Whittredge, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1989, p. 90, fig. 63, illus.
In late 1859, after nearly a decade of travelling and training in Dusseldorf with Emanuel Leutze and Eastman Johnson, Whittredge decided to return to his native land. When he landed in New York, Whittredge immediately went to the New York Historical Society to view the landscapes of A.B. Durand and Thomas Cole. These works had a profound effect on him and Whittredge later admitted being taken to tears by the visit. By early 1860, the artist was painting landscapes with a new found excitement that he discussed some years later in his autobiography: "I soon found myself in working traces but it was the most crucial period of my life. It was impossible for me to shut out from my eyes the works of the great landscape painters which I had so recently seen in Europe, while I knew well enough that if I was to succeed I must produce something new and which might claim to be inspired by my home surroundings. I was in despair. Sure, however, that if I turned to nature I should find a friend, I seized my sketch box and went to the first available outdoor place I could find. I hid myself for months in the recesses of the Catskills."
In these beginning years of the 1860s, Whittredge was rapidly developing a new vision and stability in his painting, but was simultaneously at the height of his artistic excitement.
Anthony F. Janson has suggested a circa date of 1863-65 for this painting. There are several other related works from this period, most notably, Rocks and Pines in the collection of the Vassar College Art Museum, Poughkeepsie, New York and Autumn Landscape, whereabouts unknown.
John I. H. Baur, ed., "The Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge, 1820-1910", Brooklyn Museum Journal, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn, New York, 1942, p. 42
A.F. Janson, Worthington Whittredge, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1989, p. 90, fig. 63, illus.
In late 1859, after nearly a decade of travelling and training in Dusseldorf with Emanuel Leutze and Eastman Johnson, Whittredge decided to return to his native land. When he landed in New York, Whittredge immediately went to the New York Historical Society to view the landscapes of A.B. Durand and Thomas Cole. These works had a profound effect on him and Whittredge later admitted being taken to tears by the visit. By early 1860, the artist was painting landscapes with a new found excitement that he discussed some years later in his autobiography: "I soon found myself in working traces but it was the most crucial period of my life. It was impossible for me to shut out from my eyes the works of the great landscape painters which I had so recently seen in Europe, while I knew well enough that if I was to succeed I must produce something new and which might claim to be inspired by my home surroundings. I was in despair. Sure, however, that if I turned to nature I should find a friend, I seized my sketch box and went to the first available outdoor place I could find. I hid myself for months in the recesses of the Catskills."
In these beginning years of the 1860s, Whittredge was rapidly developing a new vision and stability in his painting, but was simultaneously at the height of his artistic excitement.
Anthony F. Janson has suggested a circa date of 1863-65 for this painting. There are several other related works from this period, most notably, Rocks and Pines in the collection of the Vassar College Art Museum, Poughkeepsie, New York and Autumn Landscape, whereabouts unknown.