Pride of Place: Works from the Estate of Sydney F. Martin

Literature

Artist's Record Book I, P. 75, line 28.
Lance Humphries, Daniel Garber: Catalogue Raisonné, Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, 2006, Vol. II, p. 225, P. 624 (not illustrated).

Note

In his mature years, Daniel Garber rarely painted outside of the Bucks County area. This present work, however, takes place in Chester County, along the Brandywine River. This unusual depiction, along with at least two other works, was commissioned by Joseph Strode, of West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Although it is set some forty miles away from Garber’s hometown, the present landscape presents some strong similarities with the artist’s usual renditions. It similarly presents an idyllic view of a pastoral, lush riverbed, which beautifully combines Garber’s two famous tonalities, orange and blue. As typical with Garber, the picture plane is compartmentalized in layered sequences, stretching from the bottom of the canvas to the top edge in very distinct tiers: while the foreground is entirely occupied by the river, its beautiful dappled surface dotted by specks of light, a series of full blown thin trees stretch across the middle ground of the canvas, each carefully rendered with a meticulous brushwork. The smaller tier of the canvas is devoted to the sky, a magnificent, abstract surface washed out by soft hues of pink, lavender, blues and white which echo the bottom body of water and beautifully frame the middle vegetation. On the left side, peacefully dispersed on the river bend, are several cows shown watering – traditional animals in Garber’s oeuvre which further enhance the bucolic and enchanting atmosphere of his landscapes. Quickly sketched, their color corresponds to the large golden foliage on the other bend, and gives the painting its tonal coherence i.e. a full circle in which the top mirrors the bottom and the left echoes the right. Despite their size and almost colloquial presence, they add to the romanticism of the scene, which offers a vision of an untouched, sacred Eden.