Evening Sleigh Ride, Ravensdale Road, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

According to Dr. Kenneth W. Maddox, "The genesis of this painting is well documented in Cropsey's letter to John W. Mitchell, 1 November 1897. It is a subject the artist has painted several times. Two preliminary drawings of the subject are known: one in our collection and one in the M. & M. Karolik Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. They were done sometime between 1885, when the artist came to Hastings, and 1887, when the artist's first known oil painting of the subject is recorded. (Evening Sleigh Ride) is his earliest known watercolor of the subject and the only painting in which the sleigh travels away from the viewer. The sleigh is different in each composition, or, in one case, not included at all."

A letter from Dr. Kenneth W. Maddox, dated 5 November 2003 discussing the present work accompanies the lot.

This watercolor will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work in preparation by the Newington-Cropsey Foundation, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.