Lot Essay
In the summer of 1858, Gifford sketched and painted in the Stowe, Vermont area, eventually producing more than twenty views from Mount Mansfield, the tallest peak in the White Mountains. The present picture, like A sketch of Mansfield Mountain in the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts, is probably a preliminary study for the important 1859 canvas, Mansfield Mountain, in the Manoogian Collection.
Like the other works, this view is taken from the vantange of the "Nose", one of the characteristic rock formations at the top of the mountain. Two figures look out over the Lake Champlain area towards a sunset in the distant Adirondacks. At the right is the profile of the "Chin".
In a letter dated July 3, 1991 that accompanies the lot, Ila Weiss observes that the present painting shares with the other known versions "...an emphasis on picturesque silhouette...[and] freely brushed amalgam of light, substance and haze...[that] is Gifford's most characteristic and original contribution."
Like the other works, this view is taken from the vantange of the "Nose", one of the characteristic rock formations at the top of the mountain. Two figures look out over the Lake Champlain area towards a sunset in the distant Adirondacks. At the right is the profile of the "Chin".
In a letter dated July 3, 1991 that accompanies the lot, Ila Weiss observes that the present painting shares with the other known versions "...an emphasis on picturesque silhouette...[and] freely brushed amalgam of light, substance and haze...[that] is Gifford's most characteristic and original contribution."