Willard LeRoy Metcalf 1858 - 1925

Estate of the artist
Mr. and Mrs. Louis F. Hyde, Glens Falls, New York, 1925
Private Collection (by descent from the above)
Berry Hill Galleries, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2000

New York, The Milch Galleries, Exhibition of Works by Six American Painters, January 1921, no. 17

Milch Galleries Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., microfilm roll 4440, frame 1597; roll 4441, frame 63; roll 4421, frames 373-374; roll 4449, frame 99

This work is in very good condition. The canvas is unlined. Under UV: There is one small line of inpainting in the lower left foreground.
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Willard Leroy Metcalf found inspiration for many of his paintings in the vistas of New England and sought to capture their transformations from season to season on canvas. He distinguished himself from other Impressionist painters of the day by imbuing each depiction of the northeastern landscape with his own artistic restraint and sense of realism. As Richard Boyle notes, Metcalf “had a true affinity for [landscapes], a genuine feeling. He traveled a great deal to find terrain to satisfy his sense of place, finding what suited him best in the countryside of New England....It was just right for Metcalf, who marshaled his skills and used the formal qualities of his art to depict that landscape and convey what he felt was its essence. So, his sense of color and organization and his orchestration of tone as well as the abstract qualities of line and shape were directed toward that end" (Elizabeth de Veer and Richard Boyle, Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf, New York, 1987, pp. 244-45).

October Festival likely depicts the low lying lands and river banks of Deerfield, Massachusetts, although suggestions have also been made for Waterford, Connecticut.