
Aaron Anderson
Specialist, Head of Sale
This auction has ended. View lot details


Sold for US$35,840 inc. premium
Our American Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialist
Specialist, Head of Sale

Head of Department

Associate Specialist
Provenance
David David, Inc., Philadelphia.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 2010.
Exhibited
Newport, Rhode Island, William Vareika Fine Arts, Ltd., 2017.
Alfred Thompson Bricher's Old Pier at Narragansett beautifully demonstrates the artist's mature abilities as a luminist painter and exhibits among them his mastered techniques for depicting light and atmosphere. Influenced by the placid realism of Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865) and John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872) alongside other artists of the second generation of the Hudson River School, Bricher developed a style distinguished by smooth surfaces, delicate tonal gradations, and an emphasis on calm qualities of the atmosphere. Narragansett, Rhode Island, was one of Bricher's most frequently painted subjects and served as both a place of great artistic inspiration and a personal retreat from the boisterous circles of Boston and New York. During the 1860s and 1870s, the rugged cliffs, tidal pools, and expansive horizons of Narragansett offered Bricher an ideal setting to explore his deep interest in studying the interaction between light, sea, and atmosphere. In the present work, Bricher depicts the expansive coastline of Narragansett, rendering in great detail the crystalline clarity of the water and soft illuminating light of the cloud filled sky above. To the right on the wooden pier that splits the rough surf, a lone figure leans against a pylon gazing outward toward the sailboats in the distance. This narrative imagery helps situate Bricher within the context of a broader post-Civil War cultural shift when Americans began seeking in nature an aesthetic sanctuary amid rapid modernization. In Old Pier at Narragansett, the resulting image is one that is both disciplined in technique and transcendent in affirming the spiritual promise embedded in the American landscape.