Sanford Robinson Gifford

Sanford Robinson Gifford studied at Brown University. Training under John Rubens Smith is recorded. The field of work recorded is landscape painting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are landscape. Places of work recorded in the authority are Lake Como and Lierna. Work by Sanford Robinson Gifford is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum and Corcoran Gallery of Art.

• Name — Sanford Robinson Gifford • Born — 10 July 1823 • Birthplace — Greenfield, New York, U.S. • Died — 29 August 1880 • Place of death — New York City, New York, U.S. • Known for — Landscape art, Painting • Movement — Luminism

Gifford was born in Greenfield, New York, the fourth of the eleven children of Quaker ironmaker Elihu Gifford and Eliza Robinson Starbuck. He spent his childhood in Hudson, New York, and entered Brown University in 1842. He left college after his sophomore year, and moved to New York City in 1845 to study art. He studied drawing, perspective and anatomy under the British watercolorist and drawing-master, John Rubens Smith, and took drawing classes at the National Academy of Design. He also studied the human figure in anatomy classes at the Crosby Street Medical College. Although trained as a portrait painter, the first work Gifford exhibited at the National Academy was a landscape, in 1847. Thereafter, Gifford devoted himself primarily to landscape painting, becoming one of the finest artists of the Hudson River School. He was elected an Associate of the National Academy in 1851, and an Academician in 1854.

• Illustration — Gifford in uniform (1861), Archives of American Art • Illustration — The Wilderness (1860), Toledo Museum of Art • Illustration — Twilight in the Catskills (1861), Yale University Art Gallery • Illustration — The Artist Sketching at Mount Desert, Maine (1864-1865), National Gallery of Art • Illustration — Long Branch Beach (1867), Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University Like most Hudson River School artists, Gifford traveled extensively to find scenic landscapes to sketch and paint. In addition to exploring New England, upstate New York and New Jersey, Gifford made extensive trips abroad. He first traveled to Europe from 1855 to 1857, to study European art and sketch subjects for future paintings. During this trip Gifford also met and traveled extensively with Albert Bierstadt and Worthington Whittredge. In 1858, he traveled to Mount Mansfield, Vermont's tallest mountain, with his friend and fellow painter Jerome Thompson. Sketches made during their visit were published in the magazine Home Journal. Gifford painted some 20 paintings from the Vermont sketches. Of these, Mount Mansfield (1858) was his primary work, exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1859. Thompson also exhibited a painting of Mount Mansfield in same exhibition, Belated Party on Mansfield Mountain. Thompson's work is now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (See "2008 NAD controversy," below.) Gifford served as a corporal in the 7th Regiment of the New York Militia during the Civil War, guarding Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, 1861-1863. A few of his canvases belonging to New York City's Seventh Regiment and the Union League Club of New York are testament to this troubled time. During the summer of 1867, Gifford spent most of his time painting on the New Jersey coast, specifically at Sandy Hook and Long Branch, according to an auction Website. The Mouth of the Shrewsbury River, one noted canvas from the period, is a dramatic scene depicting a series of telegraph poles extending into an atmospheric distance underneath ominous storm clouds. Another journey, this time with Jervis McEntee and his wife, took him across Europe in 1868. Leaving the McEntees behind, Gifford traveled to the Middle East, including Egypt in 1869. Then in the summer of 1870 Gifford ventured to the Rocky Mountains in the western United States, this time with Worthington Whittredge and John Frederick Kensett. At least part of the 1870 travels were as part of a Hayden Expedition, led by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden.

Gifford enclosed "A List of Some of My Chief Pictures" in a November 6, 1874 letter to Octavius Brooks Frothingham. He updated that list in 1880. Many of these works were characterized by a hazy atmosphere with soft, suffused sunlight. He often painted a large body of water in the foreground or middle distance, in which the distant landscape would be gently reflected.

NOTE: Gifford's "Chief Pictures" are listed in bold.

• Illustration — Lake Nemi (1856-1857), Toledo Museum of Art • Illustration — Venetian Sails, A Study (1873), Washington University Museum of Art, St. Louis • Illustration — Lake Geneva (1875), Rhode Island School of Design Museum • Illustration — Ruins of the Parthenon (1880), National Gallery of Art • Illustration — Leander's Tower on the Bosphorus (1876), Fogg Museum, Harvard University • Derwentwater (c.1856), Brooklyn Museum of Art • Lake Nemi (1856–57), Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio • Saint Peter's from Pincian Hill (1865), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts • Monte Ferro - Lago Maggiore (1868), private collection. Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. • The Lagoons of Venice (1869), March-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, Woodstock, Vermont • related: Venetian Sails (1873), unlocated. Painted for John Jacob Astor. Exhibited at National Academy of Design, 1874. • related: Venetian Sails, A Study (1873), Washington University Museum of Art, St. Louis • Fishing Boats of the Adriatic (1869). Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. • Pallanza, Lago Maggiore (1869), private collection. Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. • San Giorgio, Venice (circa 1869), unlocated. Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. Exhibited at the 1878 Paris Salon. • related: Venice, San Giorgio Maggiore (1870), Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. • Tivoli (1870), Metropolitan Museum of Art. Commissioned by Robert Gordon. Exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1870. Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. • related: A View near Tivoli (1872), private collection • Isola Bella in Lago Maggiore (1871), Metropolitan Museum of Art • related: Lago Maggiore (1854), Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York • related: Lake Maggiore, Italy (1858), New-York Historical Society • Santa Maria della Salute, Venice (1871). Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. • Schloss Rheinstein (1872), Washington University Art Museum, St. Louis. • Fishing Boats Entering the Harbor at Brindisi (c.1874) • On the Lake of Geneva, near Villeneuve, with the Alps (1875), Rhode Island School of Design. Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. • A Venetian Twilight (1878), private collection • Galleries of the Stelvio, Lake Como (1878), Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute, Utica, New York • related: Sketch of Stelvio Road, Como (dated Aug. 6, 1868), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain • Villa Malta, Rome (1879), Smithsonian American Art Museum • The Matterhorn at Sunrise (1879), 40" x 28", private collection. Purchased by George C. Clark for $950 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. Photos and sketches of SRG's visit to the Matterhorn are available via the Smithsonian Web site. • Ruins of the Parthenon (1880), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Purchased for the Corcoran Gallery of Art for $5,100 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings, an auction record for the artist. • related: The Parthenon (1869), Middlebury College Museum of Art, Vermont • Venice (1880), unlocated. Exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Association, 1880 • The Golden Horn (1873). Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. The Golden Horn was a ship in Constantinople harbor. • related: Constantinople from The Golden Horn (1880), Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute, Utica, New York

• On the Nile (1871), Detroit Institute of Arts. Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. • related: Gebel Haridi, on the Nile (1868), Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York • related: A Sketch of the Nile (1869), private collection • related: On the Nile, Gebel Sheikh Hereedee (1872), private collection • Siout, Egypt (1874), National Gallery of Art Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. • related: Siout, Capital of Upper Egypt (1869), private collection • Leander's Tower on the Bosphorus (1876), Fogg Museum, Harvard University

• Illustration — A Gorge In The Mountains - Kauterskill Falls (1862), Metropolitan Museum of Art • Illustration — A Coming Storm (1863/1880), Philadelphia Museum of Art • Illustration — Haverstraw Bay (1866), Cleveland Museum of Art • Illustration — Mount Rainier, Bay of Tacoma – Puget Sound (1875), Seattle Art Museum • Illustration — An Indian Summer Day on the Claverack Creek (1877), Metropolitan Museum of Art • Illustration — Sunset over New York Bay (c.1878), private collection • Morning in the Adirondacks (1854), oval canvas, 41" x 36", Westervelt-Warner collection, Tuscaloosa, Alabama • Sunset in the Shawangunk Mountains (1854), oval canvas, 41" x 36", Westervelt-Warner collection, Tuscaloosa, Alabama • Mount Mansfield (1858), Manoogian collection (on loan to Detroit Institute of Arts) • related: Sketch for Mount Mansfield (1858), Springfield Museums, Massachusetts • Mount Mansfield, Vermont (1859), private collection. Deaccessioned by National Academy of Design, 2008 • Early October in the White Mountains (1860), Washington University Art Gallery, St. Louis • related: Mount Washington from the Saco River (1858), High Museum of Art, Atlanta • related: Indian Summer in the White Mountains (Mount Washington from the Saco) (1862), Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina • related: The White Mountains (Mount Washington from the Saco) (1871), New Britain Museum of American Art • The Wilderness (1860), Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio • related: The Wilderness (1861), private collection • related: Lake Scene - Mountain Background (1861), Addison Gallery of American Art • Twilight in the Catskills (1861), Yale University Art Gallery • A Gorge in the Mountains (Kauterskill Falls) (1862), Metropolitan Museum of Art • related: October in the Catskills (1880), Los Angeles County Museum of Art • related: Kauterskill Clove, Catskill Mountains (1880), Art Institute of Chicago • The Catskill Mountain House (1862), private collection. Purchased by E. H. Gordon for $505 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • On the Bronx River (1862). Exhibited at 1876 Centennial, Philadelphia. Sold for $310 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • A Coming Storm (1863, retouched by Gifford 1880), Philadelphia Museum of Art • related: A Coming Storm on Lake George (c.1863), private collection • related: A Coming Shower over Black Mountain, Lake George (c.1877), 18" x 34", private collection. Purchased by George C. Clark for $1,025 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • A Sudden Storm, Lake George (1877), private collection. • A View from South Mountain in the Catskills (c.1863), unlocated. Exhibited at the National Academy of Design, 1864. Sold for $300 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • related: The View from South Mountain in the Catskills, A Sketch (1865), private collection • related: The View from South Mountain in the Catskills (1871), St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, Vermont. • related: Autumn in the Catskills (1871), The Parthenon, Nashville, Tennessee • related: Study for The View from South Mountain in the Catskills (1873), private collection • related: The Hudson Valley from South Mountain (1873). Sold for $215 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • A Twilight in the Adirondacks (1864), private collection. Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. • The Artist Sketching at Mount Desert, Maine (1864-1865), National Gallery of Art • An October Afternoon (1865), upright composition, unlocated • related: An October Afternoon (1871), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston • Sandy Hook (1865), Whitney Museum of American Art • Manchester Beach, Massachusetts (1865), Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid, Spain. Sold for $205 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • A Passing Storm in the Adirondacks (1866), Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut • Rocks at Porcupine Island, near Mount Desert (1866), Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine. Sold for $230 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • A Home in the Wilderness (1866), Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. Exhibited at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris. • related: Mountain Landscape (undated), Yale University Art Gallery • Hunter Mountain, Twilight (1866), Terra Foundation, Chicago. Exhibited at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris. This painting helped to inspire the creation of the Catskill and Adirondack Forest Preserves. • related: A Study of Hunter Mountain at Twilight (c.1865), private collection • Morning in the Hudson, Haverstraw Bay (1866), Terra Foundation, Chicago • related: Haverstraw Bay (1868), Cleveland Museum of Art • related: Tappan Zee (1879-1880), private collection • Hook Mountain, near Nyack on the Hudson (1866), Yale University Art Gallery. Sold for $300 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • related: Hook Mountain on the Hudson River (1867), private collection • Echo Lake, Franconia Notch, White Mountains (c.1866), Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, New York. Sold for $215 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • Sunrise on the Sea-Shore (1867), unlocated. Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. Sold for $305 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • related: Sunrise, Long Branch, New Jersey, (1864), private collection. • related: Long Branch Beach (1867), Palmer Museum of Art, State College, Pennsylvania • related: Beach Scene (c.1870), Edison National Historic Site, West Orange, New Jersey • Sunset over the Mouth of the Shrewsbury River (1868), private collection. Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. • Shrewsbury River, Sandy Hook (1868), unlocated. • Valley of the Chugwater, Wyoming Territory (1870), Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas • related Red Buttes, Wyoming Territory (1870), unlocated • Mount Hood and the Dalles, Columbia River, Oregon (1870), private collection. Exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1870. (See Note A, below) • Kauterskill Falls (1871), Detroit Institute of Arts • Outlet of Catskill Lake (1872), Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. Sold for $275 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • Mount Rainier, Bay of Tacoma (1875), Seattle Art Museum. Exhibited at the 1878 Paris Salon. • related: Mount Rainier, Washington Territory (1874), private collection • Autumn - A Catskills Wood Path (1876), Cleveland Museum of Art. Purchased by J. G. Brown for $255 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. • An Indian Summer Day on the Claverack Creek (1877), Metropolitan Museum of Art • A Sunset, Bay of New York (1878), Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York • related: Sunset over New York Bay (c.1878), private collection • Sunset over the Palisades on the Hudson (1879), private collection • related: Sunset on the Hudson (1876), Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut • related: The Palisades (1877), Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts

• Illustration — Camp of the Seventh Regiment, near Frederick, Maryland, in July 1863 (1864), Seventh Regiment Armory, New York City • Preaching to the Troops - Sunday Morning at Camp Cameron (1861), Union League Club of New York. Painted from Meridian Hill, Georgetown, Washington, D.C., about two miles northwest of the U.S. Capitol. • Bivouac of the Seventh Regiment at Arlington Heights, Virginia (1861). Purchased by William Schaus for $630 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. Reportedly, damaged in the April 21, 1881 Madison-Square Garden disaster. • related: Bivouac of the Seventh Infantry (1861) • Baltimore in 1862: A Sunset from Federal Hill (1862), Seventh Regiment Armory, New York City. Sold for $325 at the posthumous April 11 & 12, 1881 auction of Gifford's paintings. Reportedly, damaged in the April 21, 1881 Madison Square Garden disaster. • related: The Basin of the Patapsco from Federal Hill, Baltimore (c.1862), private collection • Camp of the Seventh Regiment, near Frederick, Maryland, in July 1863 (1864), Seventh Regiment Armory, New York City

Sanford Robinson Gifford is recorded as painter.