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A Home in the Wilderness

1866

Sanford Robinson Gifford

(American, 1823-1880)

America, 19th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 114.9 x 173.7 x 16.5 cm (45 1/4 x 68 3/8 x 6 1/2 in.); Unframed: 76.8 x 135.7 cm (30 1/4 x 53 7/16 in.); Former: 96 x 154.5 x 9 cm (37 13/16 x 60 13/16 x 3 9/16 in.)

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund; The Butkin Foundation; Dorothy Burnham Memorial Collection and various donors by exchange 1970.162

Location

206 American Landscape

Fun Fact

Gifford considered this painting to be one of his finest creations.

Description

Gifford’s 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.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed lower right: SR Gifford. 1866.

Provenance

1970-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

Late 1960s-1970

(Sloan & Roman, Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

c.1960-late1960s

(The Terry DeLapp Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, sold to Sloan & Roman)1 ¹

Until c. 1960

(T. Gilbert Brouillette [1906-1970], Staten Island, NY, sold to the Terry DeLapp Gallery) 1 ²

By 1880

James M. Hartshorne [d. 1887?], New York, NY?

By 1867

(M. Knoedler & Co., New York, NY) 1 ³

Provenance Footnotes

¹1 A hand-typed fact sheet (in CMA curatorial file) presumably produced at the time of the painting’s acquisition in 1970 lists a “John Johnson” in the provenance following the Terry DeLapp Gallery. While it is possible that Johnson, who appears to have owned or bought/sold at least one other Gifford painting, acted as an intermediary or agent in the sale of the painting, DeLapp emphatically states that he sold the painting directly to Sloan & Roman.

²1 Although Brouillette was a collector as well as a dealer, Terry DeLapp, to whom Brouillette sold the painting, indicates Brouillette acted as a dealer in the sale of this painting. Brouillette’s papers at the Archives of American Art contain no reference to the painting.

³1 The painting was exhibited at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867, and the catalogue lists it as belonging to M. Knoedler, Esq.

Provenance Citations

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), and John F. Weir. A Memorial Catalogue of the Paintings of Sanford Robinson Gifford, N.A. [New York]: [Press of F. Hart & Co.], 1881.

Weiss, Ila Joyce Solomon. Sanford Robinson Gifford: (1823-1880). New York, N.Y., Columbia Univ., Diss., 1968.

Blake, William P. Reports of the United States Commissioners to the Paris Universal Exposition, 1867: Published Under Direction of the Secretary of State by Authority of the Senate of the United States. Washington, D.C.: G.P.O., 1869.

Weiss, Ila Joyce Solomon. Sanford Robinson Gifford: (1823-1880). New York, N.Y., Columbia Univ., Diss., 1968

Terry DeLapp, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Jan. 7, 2014, in CMA curatorial file.

B. Gertrude Denton, letter to William S. Talbot, April 20, 1971, in CMA curatorial file.

Citations

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 229 archive.org

Greenwald, Diana Seave. "The Big Picture: Thomas Moran’s The Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone and the Development of the American West." Winterthur Portfolio 49, no. 4 (2015): 175-210. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 196-197 www.jstor.org

Exhibition history

Paris, Exposition Universelle (1867) as Un Interieur dans le desert, no. 19; as belonging to M. Knoedler

New York, NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gifford Memorial (1880-81), accompanying publication of Memorial Catalogue.

Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Museum of Art, Year in Review, 1970 (7 February - 10 March 1971), no cat (see 1971 Bulletin).

Santa Barbara, CA, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, America in Art: Fifty Great Paintings Celebrating Fifty Years (6 June - 11 August 1991), p. 40, ill. p. 41

Metropolitan Musuem of Art (10/7/2003 - 2/8/2004); Amon Carter Museum (3/6/2004 - 5/16/2004); and National Gallery of Art (6/27/2004 - 9/26/2004): "Hudson River School: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford" exh. cat. no. 70, p.172-174.

Year in Review: 1970. The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 7, 1971).

Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (October 7, 2003-February 8, 2004); Amon Carter Museum (March 6-May 16, 2004); National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (June 27-September 26, 2004).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=A Home in the Wilderness|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1970.162|author=Sanford Robinson Gifford|year=1866|access-date=19 November 2019|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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A Home in the Wilderness

A Home in the Wilderness

Sanford Robinson Gifford

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Fun Fact

Description

Inscription

Provenance Footnotes

Provenance Citations

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