BLOUNT GALLERY
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Edward Hicks
(Attleborough (now Langhorne), Pennsylvannia, 1780 - 1849, Newtown, Pennsylvania Peaceable Kingdom ca. 1830-1832 Nineteenth Century Oil on canvas 18 1/4 in. x 24 1/16 in. (46.36 cm x 61.12 cm) Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama, The Blount Collection 1989.0002.0018 Edward Hicks was a sign painter and Quaker minister. His easel paintings were not a primary source of income, but were produced for private distribution on the order of visual sermons. This version of Edward Hicks’ "Peaceable Kingdom" (c. 1830–32) was created nearly fifteen years after the artist began painting the subject. The sixty-two known "Peaceable Kingdom" paintings went through a number of transitions over the course of thirty-three years (1816-49). The works illustrate the biblical prophesy of Isaiah (11: 6-8) which begins, "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb; and the leopard shall lie down with the kid...." The prophesy corresponds to the traditional Quaker belief that only by denial of self and selfish nature can man live in peace with the world and his neighbors. The background of this version shows a gathering of famous Quakers representing a procession of sorts, stretching from Christ and the Apostles at the apex to Hicks's contemporaries at the base of the hill. |
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Frederic Edwin Church
(Hartford, Connecticut, 1826 - 1900, New York, New York) American Landscape 1853 Nineteenth Century Oil on canvas 22 3/8 in. x 33 1/2 in. (56.83 cm x 85.09 cm) Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts , Montgomery, Alabama, The Blount Collection 1989.0002.0005 "American Landscape" is typical of Fredric Edwin Church’s early work, painted in the 1850s before he achieved fame as one of America's greatest landscape artists. At the height of his career Church was known for crafting grandiose scenes that appealed to urban audiences eager for vicarious, awe-inspiring experiences of the natural world. The museum's "American Landscape" most likely depicts a site in the Catskill Mountains or in northern Maine. Church travelled to both of these areas around the time this work was painted, and its composition is similar to his work of that period, "Mount Ktaadn", depicting a mountain in Maine. |
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Thomas Moran
(Bolton, England, 1837 - 1926, Santa Barbara, California) Dusk Wings 1860 Nineteenth Century Oil on canvas 20 1/8 in. x 30 1/4 in. (51.12 cm x 76.84 cm) Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama, The Blount Collection 1989.0002.0031 Thomas Moran's landscape paintings of the American West are some of this country's most important historical documents. These works, and reproductions of them, inspired nineteenth-century Americans to appreciate the vastness of the continent and the potential for expansion of the still evolving republic. This early painting by Moran was produced when he was just beginning his career and while he lived in Philadelphia. Here he worked with reference to the pivotal teachings of the English art critic John Ruskin, whose "Modern Painters" (1843–60) explained and exalted the painter J.M.W. Turner’s art as the most truthful representation of nature and natural forms. The meticulous rendering of the flowering plants, grasses, and rock formations in the foreground of "Dusk Wings" indicates Moran’s response to Ruskin’s instruction. In subject, "Dusk Wings" relates to a group of Moran's forest interiors from the 1860s that include solitary figures within landscape settings. These paintings depict scenery of the Eastern United States, particularly rural areas around Philadelphia. |
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William Merritt Chase
(Williamsburg, Indiana, 1849 - 1916, New York, New York) An Early Stroll in the Park 1890 Nineteenth Century Oil on canvas 20 3/8 in. x 24 1/2 in. (51.75 cm x 62.23 cm) Signed, lower right: W. M. Chase Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama, The Blount Collection 1989.0002.0004 "An Early Stroll in the Park" is one of a series of works Chase painted between 1886 and 1890 that focused on the urban landscape, primarily the public parks of Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Central Park. Urban park imagery was a staple for French Impressionist artists such as Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley, however it was innovative for an American painter such as Chase to focus on the emerging culture of city life as it moved into shared public spaces. In this case, he utilized an important destination for visitors to Central Park—the Bethesda Terrace and its Fountain, topped by Emma Stebbins bronze sculpture, "The Angel of the Waters" (1873). Jacob Wrey Mould designed the Terrace and Bethesda Fountain as an architectural monument inspired by the great formal gardens of England and France. "The Angel of the Waters", which sits atop the fountain on the lower terrace, was commissioned by the Park Commissioners in 1863. The angel figure was inspired by the biblical story of the Bethesda Pool, a Jerusalem spring credited with the power to heal the sick. The connection between the healing and restorative powers of water, and the role of the park within the life of New York City may impart specific meaning to Chase’s choice of this particular site. (See Barbara Dyer Gallati, William Merritt Chase: Modern American Landscapes, 1886-1890. New York: Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1999, pp. 37-46.) |
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Childe Hassam
(Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1859 - 1935, East Hampton, New York) Gloucester Harbor 1895 Twentieth Century Oil on canvas 20 1/2 in. x 24 in. (52.07 cm x 60.96 cm) Signed and dated, lower left: Childe Hassam 1895 Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama, The Blount Collection 1989.0002.0017 Hassam visited Gloucester, a Massachusetts coastal town where artists habitually gathered in the summer, at least five times in the 1890s. Painted in 1895, "Gloucester Harbor" is one of some seven oil paintings he produced with that title during the decade. From the beginning of his career, he made these summer trips to Gloucester in order to paint the New England coast en plein air. He not only captured various viewpoints of the harbor, but also cottages, townspeople, and the roads that led into the city. Unlike the Isles of Shoals, which was a seasonal resort, Gloucester was a large commercial port and the year-round fishing trade brought fleets from around the world to its harbor, giving it the flavor of a foreign city. This painting, with it's spit of land, houses, and small utility boats, suggests a more intitmate view of this busy harbor. American Paintings from the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, 2006, cat. no. 37 |
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John Sloan
(Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, 1871 - 1951, Hanover, New Hampshire) Grand Central Station 1924 Twentieth Century Oil on canvas 30 in. x 36 in. (76.2 cm x 91.44 cm) Signed, lower left, recto: John Sloan Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama, The Blount Collection 1989.0002.0040 Sloan’s practice as an illustrator inevitably influenced the way he approached his painted works. He was interested first and foremost in people, their interactions, environments, and personalities. "Grand Central Station" is a classic Sloan city scene. After the Armory Show in 1913, the artist abandoned his dark palette and began avoiding the use of traditional chiaroscuro for modeling. He chose instead to use gradations of color to define form. This change is reflected here in the carefully graduated tones of brown and yellow that model the station's interior. Shapes built up in one prevailing color (the brick piers, for example) are accented with touches of bright, clear color in the same hue. In choosing a viewpoint that looks down into the station, Sloan emphasized its monumental grandeur; its architectural scale suggests a type of secular cathedral. |