American art and American art collections; essays on artistic subjects . etches collected during these trips wouldhave sufficed for the occupation of the rest of their lives. They would have revelled in theirrecollections of Venice and Naples, Tangier and the Nile, and their purses would have been aconvincing indicator of the wisdom of their course. The penalty which they would probablyhave had to pay would have been the arrest of their development, and an increasing artificialityin their art which can be made tolerable only by minds of the highest order of poetical Gifford, however,
American art and American art collections; essays on artistic subjects . etches collected during these trips wouldhave sufficed for the occupation of the rest of their lives. They would have revelled in theirrecollections of Venice and Naples, Tangier and the Nile, and their purses would have been aconvincing indicator of the wisdom of their course. The penalty which they would probablyhave had to pay would have been the arrest of their development, and an increasing artificialityin their art which can be made tolerable only by minds of the highest order of poetical Gifford, however, did not succumb to such temptations. With the splendors of the Eaststill fresh before his eyes, and with none of the ostentatious contempt for foreign scenes some-times professed by over-ardent admirers of everything American, he yet went back to the hauntsof his youth, and deliberately devoted his ripest efforts to the representation of the simple coastscenery of his native Massachusetts. It is in his productions of this class — the oil paintings, 244 AMERICAN ART. The Goose a Crayon Sketch by R. Swain Gifford. water-colors, and etchings of what may at the present writing be called his last period — thatMr. Gifford has especially shown himself as a successful interpreter of certain phenomena oflight and air. The illustrations which accompany this article have all been selected by Mr. Gifford himself,and are very characteristic of the latest phase of his art. With his etchings the artisticworld is already familiar, one of them, The Path to the Shore, having met with a mostfavorable reception, as has his plate, Coal-Pockets at Neiv Bedford, which is another instanceof his ability to do much with little. Many people, no doubt, pass daily by similarscenes, without finding in them anything to inspire or even attract them. They see thesubject only, — the rough beams and boarding of the coal-pocket, the grime and dirt of both itand the coal-laden vessel, — and t
Size: 2095px × 1193px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade18, booksubjectart, booksubjectartists
