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Lot 66
Sanford Robinson Gifford(1823-1880)On the Roman Campagna 3 3/4 x 6 7/8in
19 November 2018, 16:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$11,250 inc. premium
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Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880)
On the Roman Campagna
signed 'SRGifford' (lower left), inscribed 'Roman Campagna' (on the stretcher) and bears artist's Estate Sale stamp (on the reverse)
oil on paper laid down on canvas
3 3/4 x 6 7/8in
Painted in 1856.
signed 'SRGifford' (lower left), inscribed 'Roman Campagna' (on the stretcher) and bears artist's Estate Sale stamp (on the reverse)
oil on paper laid down on canvas
3 3/4 x 6 7/8in
Painted in 1856.
Footnotes
Provenance
The artist.
Estate of the above.
Sale, Thos. E. Kirby & Co., New York, The Sanford R. Gifford Collection: Part II, April 11-12, 1881, lot 57.
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel M. Thomas, Cazenovia, New York.
Mr. Stephen and Mrs. Virginia Ann (Thomas) Kezerian, Northford, Connecticut, by descent from the above, 1977.
By descent to the present owner, 1998.
Literature
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, A Memorial Catalogue of the Paintings of Sanford Robinson Gifford, N.A., New York, 1881, p. 18, no. 103, as A Sketch on the Roman Campagna.
Accompanying this lot is a detailed research report completed by Dr. Ila Weiss. We wish to thank her for her assistance cataloguing this lot.
According to Dr. Ila Weiss, the present work is a preliminary study for a larger oil on canvas from 1858 entitled On the Roman Campagna. The date of the present work, 1856, was recorded as such in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 1881 memorial catalogue of the artist's work. This date may have been supplied by the artist's close friend and colleague, painter Jervis McEntee, who organized the paintings left in Gifford's studio after his death.
The Roman Campagna was a favored subject of the artist and he produced a volume of sketches of the area during his first tour to the site in 1855-57. Most of his drawings and paintings of the Campagna feature picturesque Roman and medieval ruins, some illustrate shepherds and sheep as additions to the composition. The present work predominantly features such local figures and animals – a shepherd is seen at far left, leaning on his crook, while another is seen resting on the ground to his right. This oil sketch exemplifies Gifford's artistic process, producing preliminary versions of a concept in very small format before embracing and developing it on a larger scale.
Dr. Weiss writes that the present lot "establishes the three main horizontal components of the landscape: iridescent sky tinged with gray-blues and pale salmons, evoking early morning or late afternoon; a centrally positioned blue-gray mountain sculpted with soft pink light; and a rock-strewn brown foreground marked with black. Foothills are distinguished from the mountain by texture alone. The human and animal staffage is strewn along the far edge of the foreground in both paintings." (unpublished letter, 7 October 2017)