Estimated Price:

   $   

Realized Price:

   $   

What is this symbol? This symbol indicates that this auction hose has verified this price result.

Log in or subscribe to view price data

signed W. Whittredge, l.l. oil on canvas 14 1/2 by 22 in.36.8 by 55.9 cm. Executed circa 1870-1872. In 1870, Worthington Whittredge travelled west for the second time to Colorado accompanied by two of his fellow Hudson River School painters, John F. Kensett and Sanford Gifford. During this excursion, he worked on a variety of sketches which he would then later refer to while executing the finished paintings in his studio in New York. This canvas is one of the many scenes that the artist sketched in oil while moving away from the idealized and picturesque tradition of the Hudson River School, reaffirming his interest and commitment to the atmospheric qualities found in plein air painting. Clearly evident in this example of his work is his increasing ability to capture the subtleties of light and shadow and to transpose them to the canvas. The viewer is immediately confronted with an open expanse of the snaking Platte River which then recedes to a vanishing point between a hazily rendered mountain range shimmering in the afternoon sun. Crossing the river, two riders emerge from the tree lined banks and slowly move toward a handful of Indian teepees on the far side of the river. As is typical of Whittredge's western landscapes, this scene depicts a tranquil setting where man and nature coexist harmoniously. According to Anthony Janson, "From 1870 to 1876 Whittredge was at the peak of his powers, and western scenes assume an important position among his landscapes. The majority are comparable in size and character with the oil sketches of 1870 (Janson, p. 127). Provenance: J. William Middendorf, III Kennedy Galleries, Inc., 1965 Private Collection Literature: Anthony F. Janson, Worthington Whittredge, Cambridge, 1989, pl. 9, illustrated The Kennedy Quarterly, New York, May 1965, vol. 5, no. 3, 1, cover illustration.