Daniel Garber

Molly Woods (Mrs. John R.) Hare, Langhorne, Pennsylvania (acquired directly from the artist)
Edward L. Johnstone, Princeton, New Jersey, 1956 (bequeathed from the above)
Private collection, 1976 (his wife)
By descent in the family to the present owner

New Hope, Pennsylvania, Phillips Mill Community Association, 1940
New Hope, Pennsylvania, New Hope Art Associates, Artist of the Month: Daniel Garber, N.A., May 1940
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, American Impressionism: The New Hope Circle, December 1984-January 1985

Artist's Record Book I, p. 60
"Artist of the Month, New Hope Art Associates: Daniel Garber, N.A.," Towpath, vol. I, no. 6, June 1940, p. 13, illustrated (as Country Church)
Hollis Taggart Galleries with Lance Humphries, Daniel Garber Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, New York, 2006, no. P717, p. 255, illustrated

The following condition report has been provided on September 23rd, 2014, by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work is totally untouched and seems to be in its original frame. It has never been removed from its original stretcher. It has no damages or retouches and although the work may be slightly dirty, it seems unlikely. There is no varnish to the surface and a light varnish could be added. The work is in extremely good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

As a young man, Daniel Garber studied under Thomas Anshutz and Hugh Breckenridge at the Darby School of Painting, in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, where students were encouraged to paint the local landscape, working outdoors rather than in a studio. Between 1899 and 1905, Garber studied at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and began his teaching career at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women.  Following a trip to England, Italy, and France, Garber and his wife, a former student, purchased a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia.  For a time, Garber divided his time almost equally between a new position teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the farm on the Cuttalossa Creek near Lumberville.  By 1915, and for decades to follow, the Garber home, known simply as "Cuttalossa," served as the base from which the artist painted numerous images of the Delaware River Valley, establishing his reputation as a leading figure within the artists' community that flourished in Bucks County during the early decades of the twentieth century.

Stockton Church, painted in the fall of 1939, depicts the Berean Baptist Church across the Delaware River in Stockton, New Jersey. Though Garber had no known affiliation with the church, which was dedicated in 1861, he was clearly fond of the building as he depicted it in at least two other paintings. Lance Humphries suggests that Garber chose to paint this particular view because the church's "... weathered and mottled stucco [provides] interesting texture and the appearance of age, as stucco does in many of Garber's paintings of old mills and houses ... the artist did not paint the front of the building, perhaps because its tall arched windows looked more Victorian than the large multi-paned sash windows on the side, which could be thought from an earlier period" (Daniel Garber, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, 2006, p. 153). In Stockton Church Garber draws the viewer into the painting via a narrow road and sets the church apart within a wooded landscape, omitting any evidence of the town of Stockton.  By covering the canvas with a layer of feathery strokes of color, Garber creates a vibrating surface and achieves the tapestry-like texture for which he is celebrated. The contrast between dark and light shades within that tapestry evokes the effects of crisp autumn sunlight as it falls through the trees.

The present work served as the basis for an etching by the same title that Garber executed in 1941.