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A sublime landscape scene of a small lone tree near rocks in a grassy field with a dramatic sky.

The open field with a slight hill rising from left to right across the horizon occupies two-thirds of the painting. It’s painted in rich earthy greens, ochres, and browns and is darker in the foreground. The sky is a stormy blue color along the horizon, brightening at the top with white clouds and a few sun beams breaking through. The tree painted left of center begins to leaf out with small bright green leaves starting at the top, some delicate branches still bare.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.141
People
John La Farge, American (New York, NY 1835 - 1910 Providence, RI)
Title
Early Spring: Sun Struggling Through Clouds (Landscape)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1864
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230414

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on wood panel
Dimensions
41 x 55.9 cm (16 1/8 x 22 in.)
framed: 52.1 x 66.4 x 4.5 cm (20 1/2 x 26 1/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: l.r.: Mean middle distance plain/tall tree towards foreground/and green grass all over/and, in foreground with a /slight [slope] in foreground/ [beyond] each green/by value/[...]
  • label: Label on back: Prepared [pane]l/Winsor and Newton/Artists' Colourmen/to Her Majesty/and to/His Royal Highness Prince Albert/38, Rathbone Place, London.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Purchased at Leonard's Gallery Auction, Boston, MA, 1879; consigned to Doll and Richards, Boston, 1881; purchased by private owner at Leonard's Gallery, Boston, 1882. Private owner paid $110 at Leonard's Gallery, per annotated catalogue now at MFA; his/her sale to Scott and Fowles, New York, 1942; their sale to Knoedler and Co., New York; their sale to Martin Birnbaum, New York; his sale to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, March, 1942; his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.141
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • James L. Yarnall, John La Farge in Paradise: The Painter and his Muse, exh. cat., William Vareika Fine Arts (Newport, RI, 1995), pp. 52-53, reproduced in color p. 52
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 185-86, cat. no. 143, reproduced in b&w, p. 186

Exhibition History

  • [John La Farge exhibition], Leonard's Gallery, Boston, 01/01/1879 - 12/31/1879
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu