.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
A champion of the American landscape, Worthington Whittredge dedicated himself to capturing the panoramic beauty of his home country. The artist was particularly transfixed by the Western frontier, which he first visited in 1865 while accompanying General Pope on an expedition to the Rocky Mountains and into New Mexico. Recalling the unfamiliar landscape, Whittredge wrote: “I had never seen the plains or anything like them. They impressed me deeply…Whoever crossed the plains at that period…could hardly fail to be impressed with its vastness and silence and the appearance everywhere of an innocent, primitive existence.” (J.I.H. Baur, ed., The Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge: 1820-1910, New York, 1969, p. 45)
Indeed, the present work illustrates the sweeping grandeur that Whittredge experienced on his Western journeys. Without a completed railroad system to traverse the plains, explorers traveled on horseback and covered wagons. Whittredge himself undertook his initial journey on horseback, following the Oregon Trail overland through the Nebraska Territory, before joining the southern bank of the Platte River to Denver, Colorado. Of his travels the artist recalled: “while the officers were lounging in their tents and awaiting their dinners, I went to make a sketch, seldom returning before sundown.” (The Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge: 1820-1910, p. 45) Upon his return to New York in 1866, Whittredge began to adapt his sketches into oil paintings.
On the Platte River strikingly represents the untouched expanse of the American West, ripe for discovery. Likely depicting a view of Long’s Peak, Colorado, in the background, the present work is dominated by the sweeping sky and towering mountains, inviting the viewer to experience the seemingly endless expanse of the landscape alongside the artist. A small figure on horseback and animals populate the foreground before numerous teepees along the riverbank, emphasizing Whittredge’s interactions with local cultures during his travels.
Whittredge’s portrayal of the West clearly communicates his amazement with his surroundings. In a time when America was recovering from the Civil War and reckoning with the advent of an industrial future, the Western frontier represented an untapped source of American greatness.
Indeed, the present work illustrates the sweeping grandeur that Whittredge experienced on his Western journeys. Without a completed railroad system to traverse the plains, explorers traveled on horseback and covered wagons. Whittredge himself undertook his initial journey on horseback, following the Oregon Trail overland through the Nebraska Territory, before joining the southern bank of the Platte River to Denver, Colorado. Of his travels the artist recalled: “while the officers were lounging in their tents and awaiting their dinners, I went to make a sketch, seldom returning before sundown.” (The Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge: 1820-1910, p. 45) Upon his return to New York in 1866, Whittredge began to adapt his sketches into oil paintings.
On the Platte River strikingly represents the untouched expanse of the American West, ripe for discovery. Likely depicting a view of Long’s Peak, Colorado, in the background, the present work is dominated by the sweeping sky and towering mountains, inviting the viewer to experience the seemingly endless expanse of the landscape alongside the artist. A small figure on horseback and animals populate the foreground before numerous teepees along the riverbank, emphasizing Whittredge’s interactions with local cultures during his travels.
Whittredge’s portrayal of the West clearly communicates his amazement with his surroundings. In a time when America was recovering from the Civil War and reckoning with the advent of an industrial future, the Western frontier represented an untapped source of American greatness.