Carmel Coast, California

Although primarily known for his idyllic scenes of Rockport, Massachusetts and snowy landscapes of Vermont, Aldro Thompson Hibbard also spent a brief time in his career traveling West. In 1923, an aspiring art student, Winifred Jackman, approached Hibbard about joining the artist's popular summer art classes in Cape Ann. Hibbard eventually allowed the young Texan to join his class and soon became enamored with the enthusiastic student. Hibbard would keep in touch with his pupil and in the fall of 1924 on a trip through Missouri and Arkansas, Hibbard stopped in El Paso to pay a visit to Winifred. The two eventually married in Texas in May 1925 and honeymooned in the Canadian Rockies. While traveling to the Rockies, Hibbard and his new bride first drove to California, spending five weeks in Carmel exploring the exceptional coastal region.

In Carmel, the dramatic cliffs and distinctly colored water, rocks and cypress trees provided a unique opportunity for Hibbard to further develop his characteristic broken-color palette and bold brushwork. Similar to his most successful works, in Carmel Coast, California, Hibbard presents an expansive landscape with a foreground that appears to extend off of the picture plane, inviting the viewer into the scene. Staying true to the unique topography, Hibbard captures the twisted trunks and foliage of the coastal cypress trees juxtaposed against dramatic angles of the sloping hillsides and rocks, set alongside the crashing surf below and open horizon of sea and sky in the distance. The present work is a rare example from this brief but significant period in Hibbard's long and successful career and provides further insight into the scope of the artist's work.