American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists

This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Edward Redfield’s work being compiled by Dr. Thomas Folk.

Provenance:

The Artist, by 1959.

Eugenie Redfield Himsworth.

American Art Galleries, Brooklyn, New York.

Acquired directly from the above.

Private Collection, New Jersey, March 1953.

By descent to the current owner.

Private Collection, New Jersey.

Literature:

John M. W. Fletcher, Edward Willis Redfield (1869-1965), An American Impressionist: His Paintings and the Man Behind the Palette, Lahaska, 1996, p. 197, no. 1082 (listed as 26 x 32 in.), not illustrated.

Lot Note:

Born in Bridgeville, Delaware in 1869, Redfield studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia under Thomas Anshutz and Thomas Hovenden. It was there that he met Robert Henri, with whom he later traveled to Paris, enrolling in classes at the Académie Julian and École des Beaux-Arts. There, Redfield immersed himself in the work of Monet and Pissarro and the principles of Impressionism. Returning to the United States, Redfield established his residence along the Delaware River in Centre Bridge, Pennsylvania, near New Hope. The region, and sites farther afield, would become his career-long focus and muse.

In Woodland Brook, Redfield trains his eye on the unique qualities of the Pennsylvania landscape, especially amid shifting seasons. His confident brushwork and thick impasto communicate the robustness and undeniable beauty of the region. Bordered by a thick pine forest, the snow-covered banks of the creek give way to the titular brook, which simultaneously divides and grants viewers an easy entry point to the composition.

Sunlight filters through the trees, creating gentle highlights on the water and the snow. Redfield's energetic application of paint, almost certainly executed en plein air, conveys the immediacy of his sensory experience, a core tenet of Impressionism. The painting's horizontal organization, punctuated by the competing angles of the central tree and brook, directs viewers' eyes across the canvas and into its depths, fostering a sense of spatial recession and drawing attention to the creek as it carves its path through the winter landscape.