American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists Featuring the Papageorge Family Collection

Exhibited

"Paintings and Etchings by Daniel Garber 1880-1958," Richard Stuart Gallery, Pipersville, Pennsylvania, November 22-December 20, 1981, no. 25.

"Literature

Lance Humphries, Daniel Garber: Catalogue Raisonné, Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, 2006. Vol. II, p. 288, P 844 (illustrated).

Note

The present work was assigned its present title by the artist’s son, who marked it on the back stretchers of the canvas, below the artist’s original signature. Considered one of Garber’s last paintings, it still features the hallmarks of his style, and is in fact reminiscent of the artist's earlier, decorative oils, in which the picture's foreground was occupied by heavily massed vertical groupings of trees, and often included draping vines to create a lacy effect. True to Garber’s run-down “method," the work is divided into three planes: the foreground, which runs parallel to the bushes, serves as a stage from which the viewer is invited to contemplate nature’s spectacle. The middleground is the main subject of the composition, a beautiful lattice of varied trees, bushes, vines, and branches, which Garber captures in vigorous, yet painstakingly detailed, colorful brushwork and which, in turn, gives the forest its overall tapestry-like texture and luminosity. Finally, the composition is crowned by a light-blue sky, dotted by large, stylized rolling clouds, which add to the layering of the oil, but also convey a soothing contrast to the earthy tones of the lower planes. Usually reduced to a thin sliver along the top edge of the canvas, the sky here has ample space to diffuse its light, and perfectly balances the composition by adding to its overall harmony.