Lot Essay
Sanford Robinson Gifford's twilight views are among the finest luminist pictures. During his lifetime Gifford's colleagues recognized the artist's passion for painting light. In 1880 John Ferguson Weir addressed the Century Association at a memorial for Gifford, "Gifford loved the light. His finest impressions were those derived from the landscape when the air is charged with an effulgence of irruptive and glowing light. He has been criticized for painting the sun; for dazzling the eye with the splendors of sunlight verging on extravagance. But is it not a quality of genius, in all the arts, to verge on extravagance, and yet remain calm?"