Lot 9
  • 9

Sanford Robinson Gifford 1823 - 1880

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 USD
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Description

  • Sanford Robinson Gifford
  • Sunset Over New York Bay
  • signed S.R .Gifford, l.r.; also signed S.R. Gifford on the reverse
  • oil on canvas
  • 8 1/4 by 13 in.
  • (21.0 by 33.0 cm)
  • Painted circa 1878.

Provenance

Robert Sloan Gallery, New York, 1966
S. Andrew Kulin, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1975

Exhibited

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Fort Worth, Texas, Amon Carter Museum; Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Nineteenth-Century Art from the Collection of Jo Ann and Julian Ganz, Jr., October 1981-September 1982, p. 134, illustrated p. 32

Literature

Ila Weiss, Sanford Robinson Gifford (1832-1880), New York, 1977, p. xxvi, xxxviii,n, 342-343, illustrated fig. IX H 3
Ila Weiss, Poetic Landscape: The Art and Experience of Sanford Robinson Gifford, Newark, Delaware, 1987, pp. 315-317, illustrated
Kevin Avery and Franklin Kelly, ed., Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford, New York, 2003, illustrated p. 226

Condition

Very good condition, unlined. Under UV: a few thin lines of retouch at center, small dot of retouch above boats at left.
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.

Catalogue Note

Sanford Robinson Gifford grew up in Hudson, New York, amid the natural beauty of the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River. He observed the region's dramatic changes in color as seasons progressed and weather shifted, but most importantly, he was able to study the varying effects of light on the landscape. This interest in light led him to the works of the English master J.M.W. Turner, whose works he saw when he visited the National Gallery in England in 1855. Gifford marveled in a letter to his family that Turner's paintings had a "gorgeous scheme of color, but such a one as I have never seen in nature, and color which I do not think possible when the sun is ... full half an hour above the horizon – that is, clouds of scarlet and gold." Gifford would experiment with Turner's atmospheric diffusion of sunlight and the resultant golden tonality at varying points during throughout the rest of his career.

In the 2003 exhibition catalogue Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford, Franklin Kelly discusses Gifford's relationship to Turner at length. He writes: "More than two decades [after Gifford first saw Turner's work in London], and with vastly more experience as an artist, Gifford must have reevaluated Turner's great work with even deeper understanding when it appeared as a star picture in the 1876 sale of the celebrated collection of New Yorker John Taylor Johnson" (Hudson River School Visions, p. 225). Gifford took steps to paint the present view of New York Bay not long after. As was Gifford's typical practice, Sunset over New York Bay is a small oil study for the larger version (1878, 20¾ x 40¾ in.) in the collection of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York. In intermediate studies, such as this one, Gifford worked out his color schemes and compositional arrangements. With respect to the large version Kelly notes: "A Sunset, Bay of New York suggests more than just the influence of Turner's paint handling and color schemes. Its composition, with a thin band of still water, carefully disposed ships, and a glowing expanse of sky receding into a vortex-like distance, recalls such pictures by Turner as The "Fighting Téméraire," Tugged to Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up, 1838 (1839; National Gallery, London), and Keelmen Heaving in Colas by Moonlight (1835; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)" (Hudson River School Visions, p. 225). Although Sunset Over New York Bay may be Gifford's most complete homage to the English master, his sustained interest in a luminous atmosphere rarely wavered, and Turner's work was merely another avenue throught which to explore the optical potentials of color and light.