The Collection of Dorrance "Dodo" H. Hamilton

Provenance: Christie's, New York, sale of January 13, 2015, lot 122.

Acquired directly from the above sale.

Collection of Dorrance H. Hamilton.

NOTE:

Edmund Darch Lewis was born in Philadelphia in 1835. A student of German-born artist Paul Weber (1823-1916), Lewis rapidly became a prolific artist who made a specialty of his landscape and marine oils. In 1854, he was able to exhibit two of his paintings at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he was elected an associate five years later and a full academician in 1862. While his oeuvre made him one of the most financially successful artists of the 19th century, Lewis was also well known for his large collection of furniture and China, which he displayed in his sumptuously furnished townhouse on 526 South 22nd Street.

This detailed romantic landscape reflects the influence of famous contemporaries Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) and Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902). Underneath a pink sky, an imposing rock emerges from the sea. Wet by the surrounding waves, it adds to the dramatic tension of the scene. In the distance, sailboats are calmly following each other. They sail peacefully on the shimmering sea, as careless as the summer day the artist here captures.