"A Home in the Wilderness", Sanford Robinson Gifford NFT on XRPL
"A Home in the Wilderness", Sanford Robinson Gifford
Collection: Cleveland Originals
Giffords view of Mount Hayes in New Hampshire records human intrusion into a remote landscape. On the left riverbank a log cabin stands amid a recently cleared patch of land with several tree stumps, while figures in its doorway greet a man who has arrived with a canoe of supplies."fun_fact": "Gifford considered this painting to be one of his finest creations." Artist Bio: **Sanford Robinson Gifford** (July 10, 1823 – August 29, 1880) was an American landscape painter and a leading member of the second generation of Hudson River School artists. A highly regarded practitioner of Luminism, his work was noted for its emphasis on light and soft atmospheric effects. ### Childhood and Early Career He was born in Greenfield, New York, the fourth of eleven children of Quaker ironmaker Elihu Gifford and Eliza Robinson Starbuck. He spent his childhood in Hudson, New York, and entered Brown University in 1842. He left college after his sophomore year and moved to New York City in 1845 to study art. He studied drawing, perspective, and anatomy under the British watercolorist and drawing master John Rubens Smith and took drawing classes at the National Academy of Design. He also studied the human figure in anatomy classes at the Crosby Street Medical College. Although trained as a portrait painter, the first work Gifford exhibited at the National Academy was a landscape, in 1847. Thereafter, Gifford devoted himself primarily to landscape painting, becoming one of the finest artists of the Hudson River School. He was elected an Associate of the National Academy in 1851 and an Academician in 1854. ### Gifford's Travels Like most Hudson River School artists, Gifford traveled extensively to find scenic landscapes to sketch and paint. In addition to exploring New England, upstate New York, and New Jersey, Gifford made extensive trips abroad. He first traveled to Europe from 1855 to 1857 to study European art and sketch subjects for future paintings. During this trip, Gifford also met and traveled extensively with Albert Bierstadt and Worthington Whittredge. In 1858, he traveled to Mount Mansfield, Vermont's tallest mountain, with his friend and fellow painter Jerome Thompson. Sketches made during their visit were published in the magazine Home Journal. Gifford painted some 20 paintings from the Vermont sketches. Of these, *Mount Mansfield* (1858) was his primary work, exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1859. Thompson also exhibited a painting of Mount Mansfield in the same exhibition, *Belated Party on Mansfield Mountain*. Thompson's work is now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gifford served as a corporal in the 7th Regiment of the New York Militia during the Civil War, guarding Washington, D.C., and Baltimore from 1861-1863. A few of his canvases belonging to New York City's Seventh Regiment and the Union League Club of New York are a testament to this troubled time. During the summer of 1867, Gifford spent most of his time painting on the New Jersey coast, specifically at Sandy Hook and Long Branch. *The Mouth of the Shrewsbury River*, one noted canvas from the period, is a dramatic scene depicting a series of telegraph poles extending into an atmospheric distance underneath ominous storm clouds. Another journey, this time with Jervis McEntee and his wife, took him across Europe in 1868. Leaving the McEntees behind, Gifford traveled to the Middle East, including Egypt, in 1869. Then, in the summer of 1870, Gifford ventured to the Rocky Mountains in the western United States, this time with Worthington Whittredge and John Frederick Kensett. At least part of the 1870 travels were as part of a Hayden Expedition, led by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden. ### Method Mr. Gifford's method was this: When he saw anything that vividly impressed him and which he wished to reproduce, he made a small sketch in pencil on a card about the size of an ordinary visiting card. It took him, say, half a minute to make it; there was the idea of the future picture fixed as firmly if not as fully as the completed work itself. While traveling, he could, in this way, lay up a good stock of material for future use. The next step was to make a larger sketch, this time in oil, where what had already been done in black-and-white was repeated in color. To this sketch, which was about twelve inches by eight, he devoted an hour or two. It served the purpose of defining to him just what he wanted to do. He experimented with it; putting in or leaving out elements as he found necessary to increase or perfect his idea. When satisfactorily finished, it was a model of what he proposed to do. He was then ready to paint the picture itself. When the day came, he began work just after sunrise and continued until just before sunset. Ten, eleven, twelve consecutive hours, according to the season of the year, were occupied in the first great effort to put the scene on canvas. He felt fresh and eager. His studio door was locked. Nothing was allowed to interrupt him. When the long day was finished and the picture was produced, the work of criticism, correction, and completion was in place. Mr. Gifford did this work slowly. He liked to keep his picture in his studio as long as possible. Sometimes he did not touch the canvas for months after his first criticisms had been executed. Then, suddenly, he saw something that would help it along. He once said in his studio: "I thought that picture was done half a dozen times. It certainly might have been called finished six months ago. I was working at it all day yesterday." But one limitation should be noted here. Mr. Gifford did not experiment with his paintings. He did not make a change in one of them unless he knew precisely what he wished to do. When Mr. Gifford was done, he stopped. And he knew when he was done. Yet, on the other hand, he would rather take the risk of destroying a picture than feel the slightest doubt about any part of it. The moment of his keenest pleasure was not when his work was satisfactorily completed, but when, long beforehand, he felt that he was going to be successful with it. Gifford would often revisit an image later, sometimes years later, painting a variation based on his sketches and own inspiration or a patron's wishes. Thirty-six Venice paintings, based on his 1869 drawings and studies of the city, were listed in the 1881 memorial catalogue of Gifford's works. He painted additional Venetian works, according to biographer Ila Weiss. In 1875, he wrote to a friend: "I have painted so many Venetian pictures during the last five years that I have lately declined to paint them when they have been asked for. One can't stay in Venice forever any more than one can eat partridge every day." In the same letter, he wrote about his commission fees: "The price of such a picture the size of the *Fishing Boats Entering the Harbor of Brindisi* is $1600 without the frame. That is the price I received for the *Brindisi*, *Lake Geneva*, and *Mount Rainier - Bay of Tacoma*." ### "Chief Pictures" Gifford enclosed "A List of Some of My Chief Pictures" in a November 6, 1874, letter to Octavius Brooks Frothingham. He updated that list in 1880. Many of these works were characterized by a hazy atmosphere with soft, suffused sunlight. He often painted a large body of water in the foreground or middle distance, in which the distant landscape would be gently reflected. ### Death and Legacy In June 1877, at age 53, Gifford married Mary Cecilia Canfield (1824-1887), the widow of a friend. They had no children. On August 29, 1880, Gifford died in New York City after having been diagnosed with malarial fever. That autumn, the Metropolitan Museum of Art organized a memorial exhibition of 160 of his works. The Gifford collection comprised nearly 70 pictures, and enough studies for pictures to bring the total up to 160 numbers. It occupied the entire west gallery. While the limited time allowed for the formation of the collection and the inconvenient season for securing loans prevented that completeness of representation which was desired, yet enough was gathered to exhibit successfully the extent, the beauty, and the real power of Mr. Gifford's work, as well as its defects and limitations. Among the more important pictures that were displayed were *Twilight in the Wilderness* (1861), *Kaaterskill Clove* (1863), *Mansfield Mountain* (1868), *The Mouth of the Shrewsbury* (1868), *Sta. Maria della Salute* (1870), *Tivoli* (1870), *San Giorgio* (1870), *A Venetian Twilight* (1878), *The Matterhorn at Sunrise* (1879), *The Parthenon* (1880), and *Venice* (1880). The following year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art published a catalog of his works, which listed 734 paintings and featured an appraisal of his work by his friend, John F. Weir of Yale University: "Mr. S. R. Gifford was represented [at the 1876 Centennial Exposition] by his *Sunrise on the Sea-Shore*, of which it may be said that the sea and its solitude has seldom inspired a more profound motive, or one more adequately rendered, than this picture. *Tivoli* and *Lake Geneva* are no less admirable, but with a very distinct sentiment, and *Pallanza, Lago Maggiore* has a full-blooded sense of light, modified by tone that is in every respect masterly in treatment. Two pictures by the same artist, *Fishing-Boats of the Adriatic* and *San Giorgio, Venice*, are as strong and pronounced in color as the former works are delicate , and a contrast of power in the same direction. *Mount Mansfield* and *Fort Montgomery* are both examples of the beautiful and poetic in landscape composition, and equally characteristic of the general scope of Mr. Gifford's work." The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired *A Coming Storm* in 1880. Today, Gifford's paintings are in the collections of major museums across the United States. ### Conclusion Sanford Robinson Gifford's rich body of work and his innovative techniques firmly establish him as a leading figure in American landscape painting. His dedication to capturing the interplay of light and atmosphere, along with his extensive travels to seek inspiration, left a lasting impact on the Hudson River School and American art history. Gifford's legacy continues to be celebrated and studied for its unique contributions to the art of landscape painting.
Issuer: rLzncbwKysPuA9FvrocUKBZUbQGiBBPNk3
Taxon: 2
- culture : America, 19th century
- creation date : 1866
- technique : oil on canvas
- artist: Sanford Robinson Gifford
- px: 13720 x 7707
NFTokenID: 00081770DB35F371D4D6B9E351DA0CF20D4EBF5F49F78DB90B06E859042C1EC0
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Properties
Description
Giffords view of Mount Hayes in New Hampshire records human intrusion into a remote landscape. On the left riverbank a log cabin stands amid a recently cleared patch of land with several tree stumps, while figures in its doorway greet a man who has arrived with a canoe of supplies."fun_fact": "Gifford considered this painting to be one of his finest creations." Artist Bio: **Sanford Robinson Gifford** (July 10, 1823 – August 29, 1880) was an American landscape painter and a leading member of the second generation of Hudson River School artists. A highly regarded practitioner of Luminism, his work was noted for its emphasis on light and soft atmospheric effects. ### Childhood and Early Career He was born in Greenfield, New York, the fourth of eleven children of Quaker ironmaker Elihu Gifford and Eliza Robinson Starbuck. He spent his childhood in Hudson, New York, and entered Brown University in 1842. He left college after his sophomore year and moved to New York City in 1845 to study art. He studied drawing, perspective, and anatomy under the British watercolorist and drawing master John Rubens Smith and took drawing classes at the National Academy of Design. He also studied the human figure in anatomy classes at the Crosby Street Medical College. Although trained as a portrait painter, the first work Gifford exhibited at the National Academy was a landscape, in 1847. Thereafter, Gifford devoted himself primarily to landscape painting, becoming one of the finest artists of the Hudson River School. He was elected an Associate of the National Academy in 1851 and an Academician in 1854. ### Gifford's Travels Like most Hudson River School artists, Gifford traveled extensively to find scenic landscapes to sketch and paint. In addition to exploring New England, upstate New York, and New Jersey, Gifford made extensive trips abroad. He first traveled to Europe from 1855 to 1857 to study European art and sketch subjects for future paintings. During this trip, Gifford also met and traveled extensively with Albert Bierstadt and Worthington Whittredge. In 1858, he traveled to Mount Mansfield, Vermont's tallest mountain, with his friend and fellow painter Jerome Thompson. Sketches made during their visit were published in the magazine Home Journal. Gifford painted some 20 paintings from the Vermont sketches. Of these, *Mount Mansfield* (1858) was his primary work, exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1859. Thompson also exhibited a painting of Mount Mansfield in the same exhibition, *Belated Party on Mansfield Mountain*. Thompson's work is now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gifford served as a corporal in the 7th Regiment of the New York Militia during the Civil War, guarding Washington, D.C., and Baltimore from 1861-1863. A few of his canvases belonging to New York City's Seventh Regiment and the Union League Club of New York are a testament to this troubled time. During the summer of 1867, Gifford spent most of his time painting on the New Jersey coast, specifically at Sandy Hook and Long Branch. *The Mouth of the Shrewsbury River*, one noted canvas from the period, is a dramatic scene depicting a series of telegraph poles extending into an atmospheric distance underneath ominous storm clouds. Another journey, this time with Jervis McEntee and his wife, took him across Europe in 1868. Leaving the McEntees behind, Gifford traveled to the Middle East, including Egypt, in 1869. Then, in the summer of 1870, Gifford ventured to the Rocky Mountains in the western United States, this time with Worthington Whittredge and John Frederick Kensett. At least part of the 1870 travels were as part of a Hayden Expedition, led by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden. ### Method Mr. Gifford's method was this: When he saw anything that vividly impressed him and which he wished to reproduce, he made a small sketch in pencil on a card about the size of an ordinary visiting card. It took him, say, half a minute to make it; there was the idea of the future picture fixed as firmly if not as fully as the completed work itself. While traveling, he could, in this way, lay up a good stock of material for future use. The next step was to make a larger sketch, this time in oil, where what had already been done in black-and-white was repeated in color. To this sketch, which was about twelve inches by eight, he devoted an hour or two. It served the purpose of defining to him just what he wanted to do. He experimented with it; putting in or leaving out elements as he found necessary to increase or perfect his idea. When satisfactorily finished, it was a model of what he proposed to do. He was then ready to paint the picture itself. When the day came, he began work just after sunrise and continued until just before sunset. Ten, eleven, twelve consecutive hours, according to the season of the year, were occupied in the first great effort to put the scene on canvas. He felt fresh and eager. His studio door was locked. Nothing was allowed to interrupt him. When the long day was finished and the picture was produced, the work of criticism, correction, and completion was in place. Mr. Gifford did this work slowly. He liked to keep his picture in his studio as long as possible. Sometimes he did not touch the canvas for months after his first criticisms had been executed. Then, suddenly, he saw something that would help it along. He once said in his studio: "I thought that picture was done half a dozen times. It certainly might have been called finished six months ago. I was working at it all day yesterday." But one limitation should be noted here. Mr. Gifford did not experiment with his paintings. He did not make a change in one of them unless he knew precisely what he wished to do. When Mr. Gifford was done, he stopped. And he knew when he was done. Yet, on the other hand, he would rather take the risk of destroying a picture than feel the slightest doubt about any part of it. The moment of his keenest pleasure was not when his work was satisfactorily completed, but when, long beforehand, he felt that he was going to be successful with it. Gifford would often revisit an image later, sometimes years later, painting a variation based on his sketches and own inspiration or a patron's wishes. Thirty-six Venice paintings, based on his 1869 drawings and studies of the city, were listed in the 1881 memorial catalogue of Gifford's works. He painted additional Venetian works, according to biographer Ila Weiss. In 1875, he wrote to a friend: "I have painted so many Venetian pictures during the last five years that I have lately declined to paint them when they have been asked for. One can't stay in Venice forever any more than one can eat partridge every day." In the same letter, he wrote about his commission fees: "The price of such a picture the size of the *Fishing Boats Entering the Harbor of Brindisi* is $1600 without the frame. That is the price I received for the *Brindisi*, *Lake Geneva*, and *Mount Rainier - Bay of Tacoma*." ### "Chief Pictures" Gifford enclosed "A List of Some of My Chief Pictures" in a November 6, 1874, letter to Octavius Brooks Frothingham. He updated that list in 1880. Many of these works were characterized by a hazy atmosphere with soft, suffused sunlight. He often painted a large body of water in the foreground or middle distance, in which the distant landscape would be gently reflected. ### Death and Legacy In June 1877, at age 53, Gifford married Mary Cecilia Canfield (1824-1887), the widow of a friend. They had no children. On August 29, 1880, Gifford died in New York City after having been diagnosed with malarial fever. That autumn, the Metropolitan Museum of Art organized a memorial exhibition of 160 of his works. The Gifford collection comprised nearly 70 pictures, and enough studies for pictures to bring the total up to 160 numbers. It occupied the entire west gallery. While the limited time allowed for the formation of the collection and the inconvenient season for securing loans prevented that completeness of representation which was desired, yet enough was gathered to exhibit successfully the extent, the beauty, and the real power of Mr. Gifford's work, as well as its defects and limitations. Among the more important pictures that were displayed were *Twilight in the Wilderness* (1861), *Kaaterskill Clove* (1863), *Mansfield Mountain* (1868), *The Mouth of the Shrewsbury* (1868), *Sta. Maria della Salute* (1870), *Tivoli* (1870), *San Giorgio* (1870), *A Venetian Twilight* (1878), *The Matterhorn at Sunrise* (1879), *The Parthenon* (1880), and *Venice* (1880). The following year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art published a catalog of his works, which listed 734 paintings and featured an appraisal of his work by his friend, John F. Weir of Yale University: "Mr. S. R. Gifford was represented [at the 1876 Centennial Exposition] by his *Sunrise on the Sea-Shore*, of which it may be said that the sea and its solitude has seldom inspired a more profound motive, or one more adequately rendered, than this picture. *Tivoli* and *Lake Geneva* are no less admirable, but with a very distinct sentiment, and *Pallanza, Lago Maggiore* has a full-blooded sense of light, modified by tone that is in every respect masterly in treatment. Two pictures by the same artist, *Fishing-Boats of the Adriatic* and *San Giorgio, Venice*, are as strong and pronounced in color as the former works are delicate , and a contrast of power in the same direction. *Mount Mansfield* and *Fort Montgomery* are both examples of the beautiful and poetic in landscape composition, and equally characteristic of the general scope of Mr. Gifford's work." The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired *A Coming Storm* in 1880. Today, Gifford's paintings are in the collections of major museums across the United States. ### Conclusion Sanford Robinson Gifford's rich body of work and his innovative techniques firmly establish him as a leading figure in American landscape painting. His dedication to capturing the interplay of light and atmosphere, along with his extensive travels to seek inspiration, left a lasting impact on the Hudson River School and American art history. Gifford's legacy continues to be celebrated and studied for its unique contributions to the art of landscape painting.
"A Home in the Wilderness", Sanford Robinson Gifford
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