American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists Featuring the Collection of Virginia and Stuart Peltz

Note

In 1903, Edward Redfield and his wife, Elise, started summering in Boothbay Harbor and Monhegan Island, Maine. With its rugged hills and shallow beaches, Maine's landscape provided Redfield the liberating opportunity to explore and capture untouched forms of nature unique to the northern seacoast. The seascapes Redfield painted in Maine during this period are considered among his best works. They reflect his ferocious painterly method with rapid, spontaneous brushstrokes echoing the artist's energy. Robert Henri, who often joined the Redfields in Maine, noted the impression the artist had on local inhabitants, "slinging the paint over big canvases, astounding the natives and astounding the local artists with his rapidity as well as his results..."

Painted circa 1930s, the present work depicts an agitated sea along the rugged shoreline, with what appears to be Monhegan Island in the distance, where Redfield often stayed and in fact painted several canvases. Here the artist builds up paint with multiple layers of thick pigment to indicate a change in the weather and the upcoming storm, as revealed by the menacing clouds in the background and the already-pouring rain at upper right. The result is a rich impastoed texture reminiscent of the artist's earlier snow scenes set in Bucks County. Through lively and rigorous brushstrokes, Redfield infuses a sense of power to the scene, indicating an ongoing fascination with the ever-changing elements. Vividly colored rocks in the foreground provide a strong contrast with the pastel-blue sky and the water's whitecaps in the background, producing a well-balanced jewel-toned work celebrating Maine's so distinct landscape, and capricious weather.