The following description for has been prepared entirely by the current owner, Roberts S. Fastov, Esq., and, at the collector’s request, has not been edited by Sloans & Kenyon
Note 1) The following Whittredge
biographical materials are taken from the Askart.com website:
“Born in a log cabin and raised on a
farm near Springfield, Ohio, on the sparsely settled frontier, Worthington
Whittredge was to later establish himself as one of the foremost painters of
the Second Generation Hudson River School* painters. His artwork incorporates
the topographical style of the Hudson River School with the use of light and
color typical of the French Barbizon* School and Impressionism. His subjects
include the Catskill Mountains in New York and the White Mountains in New
Hampshire, in addition to the Great Plains of American West.
Growing up as a trapper and hunter
in Ohio, he had little formal art education. In 1837, at age 17, he went to Cincinnati
to work with a brother-in-law, Almon Baldwin, who was a house and sign painter.
Whittredge taught himself portrait and landscape painting, experimented briefly
in Indianapolis with daguerreotypes*, and then opened a portrait studio in
Charlestown, West Virginia. However, after 1843, he focused on painting
landscapes.
When he was in Cincinnati, he met
many supporters of the arts including Nicholas Longworth, who became his patron
and sent him to Europe. In 1849, Whittredge enrolled at the Royal Academy in
Dusseldorf*, Germany and spent five years there studying there with Carl
Lessing and Andreas Achenbach. In Germany he developed an aesthetic that
emphasized the meticulous recording of naturalistic details. The use of color
and light in his landscapes is often referred to as a style that anticipated
the forthcoming work of French Impressionists*. He went on to spend another
five years in Rome where he was part of the artists' group that included
Frederick Church and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He also visited Switzerland and Paris
and was exposed to but rejected the Barbizon style of painting depicting
peasant figures in landscape.
He returned to New York City in
1859, and, realizing his paintings of European landscapes were not well
received, devoted himself to American landscape subjects, producing views of
New York and New England. He became a typical Hudson River school painter,
showing special skill with sunlight filtering through thick foliage and scenes
of savage beauty and wondrous promise
At this time, some parts of the
population, unconvinced of mankind's super eminence and skeptical of
materialism, were proponents of the 'romantic rebellion', and tended to trust
emotion and subjectivism over intellect and objectivism. Developing more
contemplative frames of mind, they queried the mysteries of life, the universe,
and God. In America the movement found a philosophical base through the
eloquent writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and other
transcendentalist thinkers. According to Whittredge, who had become a leading
member of the 'Hudson River School', that designation was first coined by an
unnamed critic for the New York Herald, who intended it as a barb on
what was seen as the group's provincialism. Other accounts hold that the term originated
with Clarence Cook, a nineteenth-century critic for the New York Tribune.
Landscape had by this time evolved
from subordinate backgrounds in history painting and some portraiture to an
autonomous statement. The widespread acceptance of a romantic view of nature
was significant, as it was believed that nature revealed its truth and beauty
not to a limited few but to the mass of men. Nature in its own terms would come
to symbolize, an American vast geophysical asset, the challenge and adventure of
exploration, as well as the present and future of the nation, particularly
appropriate for a country deficient in long historical traditions.
On the other hand, to the
anti-urban, anti-industrial naturalist, landscape was the glorious
demonstration of God's handiwork and benevolence. Nature was God's art.
Characterizing landscape was of the highest worthiness for the artist's
consideration. Not surprisingly, in much writing of the period, the word nature
is reverentially capitalized, as though proceeding from Deity just as certainly
as the Son and Holy Spirit of the Trinity. Thus landscape was potentially more
than mere topographical recording; it could be overlaid with moral and
theological significance.
By the mid-nineteenth century,
however, civilization had encroached considerably upon the eastern landscape,
and Whittredge decided to journey westward with John Frederick Kensett and
Sanford Robinson Gifford to Fort Kearny in Nebraska and then the Rockies to
find new sources of inspiration
In 1865-66, with Gifford and
Kensett, he accompanied Major General John Pope from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas,
up the south branch of the Platte River through Denver, then south along the
eastern Rockies into New Mexico, where they met Kit Carson in Santa Fe.
If some were disenchanted with the
desolate plains and prairies, Worthington Whittredge, on his journey with
General Pope, was deeply moved by them: "I had never seen the plains or
anything like them. They impressed me deeply. I cared more for them than for
the mountains, and very few of my western pictures have been produced from
sketches made in the mountains, but rather from those made on the plains with
the mountains in the distance. Whoever crossed the plains at that period,
notwithstanding its herds of buffalo and flocks of antelope, its wild horses,
deer and fleet rabbits, could hardly fail to be impressed with its vastness and
silence and the appearance everywhere of an innocent, primitive existence.”
Whittredge made a total of three
trips into the West but produced only about forty oil sketches and studio
paintings based on Western subjects. Most were painted in his New York City
studio from sketches made during his first journey to the West in 1866. A work
in the Museum of Nebraska Art is, however, one on-site painting done along the
South Platte River on his last trip in 1871.
In 1896, Whittredge took a sketching
trip to Mexico with Hartford native Frederic Church, who had been one of the
nation's leading landscape painters.
The
evolving and changing style of his landscape paintings reflect the variety and
flux of American society at the time. He is numbered among the practitioners of
luminism, as his paintings contain a minutely executed tonal quality marked by
intense illumination, expressing a mysterious, atmospheric silence.
Notable works include the Camp Meeting (1874; Metropolitan Museum) and Third Beach, Newport (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis). He also did a few still life as well as domestic interiors and exhibited his work at the National
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“Born in
a log cabin and raised on a farm near Springfield, Ohio, on the sparsely
settled frontier, Worthington Whittredge was to later establish himself as one
of the foremost painters of the Second Generation Hudson River School*
painters. His artwork incorporates the topographical style of the Hudson
River School with the use of light and color typical of the French Barbizon*
School and Impressionism. His subjects include the Catskill Mountains in New
York and the White Mountains in New Hampshire, in addition to the Great
Plains of the American West. Growing up as a trapper and hunter
in Ohio, he had little formal art education. In 1837, at age 17, he went to
Cincinnati to work with a brother-in-law, Almon Baldwin, who was a house and
sign painter. Whittredge taught himself portrait and landscape painting,
experimented briefly in Indianapolis with daguerreotypes*, and then opened a
portrait studio in Charlestown, West Virginia. However, after 1843, he
focused on painting landscapes. When he was in Cincinnati, he met
many supporters of the arts including Nicholas Longworth, who became his
patron and sent him to Europe. In 1849, Whittredge enrolled at the Royal Academy
in Dusseldorf*, Germany and spent five years there studying there with Carl
Lessing and Andreas Achenbach. In Germany he developed an aesthetic that
emphasized the meticulous recording of naturalistic details. The use of color
and light in his landscapes is often referred to as a style that anticipated
the forthcoming work of French Impressionists*. He went on to spend another
five years in Rome where he was part of the artists' group that included
Frederick Church and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He also visited Switzerland and
Paris and was exposed to but rejected the Barbizon style of painting
depicting peasant figures in landscape. He returned to New York City in
1859, and, realizing his paintings of European landscapes were not well
received, devoted himself to American landscape subjects, producing views of
New York and New England. He became a typical Hudson River school painter,
showing special skill with sunlight filtering through thick foliage and
scenes of savage beauty and wondrous promise At this time, some parts of the
population, unconvinced of mankind's super eminence and skeptical of
materialism, were proponents of the 'romantic rebellion', and tended to trust
emotion and subjectivism over intellect and objectivism. Developing more
contemplative frames of mind, they queried the mysteries of life, the
universe, and God. In America the movement found a philosophical base through
the eloquent writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and other
transcendentalist thinkers. According to Whittredge, who had become a leading
member of the 'Hudson River School', that designation was first coined by an
unnamed critic for the New York Herald, who intended it as a barb on
what was seen as the group's provincialism. Other accounts hold that the term
originated with Clarence Cook, a nineteenth-century critic for the New
York Tribune. Landscape had by this time evolved
from subordinate backgrounds in history painting and some portraiture to an
autonomous statement. The widespread acceptance of a romantic view of nature
was significant, as it was believed that nature revealed its truth and beauty
not to a limited few but to the mass of men. Nature in its own terms would
come to symbolize, an American vast geophysical asset, the challenge and
adventure of exploration, as well as the present and future of the nation,
particularly appropriate for a country deficient in long historical
traditions. On the other hand, to the
anti-urban, anti-industrial naturalist, landscape was the glorious
demonstration of God's handiwork and benevolence. Nature was God's art.
Characterizing landscape was of the highest worthiness for the artist's
consideration. Not surprisingly, in much writing of the period, the word
nature is reverentially capitalized, as though proceeding from Deity just as
certainly as the Son and Holy Spirit of the Trinity. Thus landscape was
potentially more than mere topographical recording; it could be overlaid with
moral and theological significance. By the mid-nineteenth century,
however, civilization had encroached considerably upon the eastern landscape,
and Whittredge decided to journey westward with John Frederick Kensett and
Sanford Robinson Gifford to Fort Kearny in Nebraska and then the Rockies to
find new sources of inspiration In 1865-66, with Gifford and
Kensett, he accompanied Major General John Pope from Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas, up the south branch of the Platte River through Denver, then south
along the eastern Rockies into New Mexico, where they met Kit Carson in Santa
Fe. If some were disenchanted with the
desolate plains and prairies, Worthington Whittredge, on his journey with
General Pope, was deeply moved by them: "I had never seen the plains or
anything like them. They impressed me deeply. I cared more for them than for
the mountains, and very few of my western pictures have been produced from
sketches made in the mountains, but rather from those made on the plains with
the mountains in the distance. Whoever crossed the plains at that period,
notwithstanding its herds of buffalo and flocks of antelope, its wild horses,
deer and fleet rabbits, could hardly fail to be impressed with its vastness
and silence and the appearance everywhere of an innocent, primitive
existence.” Whittredge made a total of three
trips into the West but produced only about forty oil sketches and studio
paintings based on Western subjects. Most were painted in his New York City
studio from sketches made during his first journey to the West in 1866. A
work in the Museum of Nebraska Art is, however, one on-site painting done
along the South Platte River on his last trip in 1871. In 1896, Whittredge took a
sketching trip to Mexico with Hartford native Frederic Church, who had been
one of the nation's leading landscape painters. The
evolving and changing style of his landscape paintings reflect the variety
and flux of American society at the time. He is numbered among the
practitioners of luminism, as his paintings contain a minutely executed tonal
quality marked by intense illumination, expressing a mysterious, atmospheric
silence. Notable works include the Camp
Meeting (1874; Metropolitan Museum) and Third Beach, Newport (Walker Art
Center, Minneapolis). He also did a few still life as well as domestic
interiors and exhibited his work at the National Academy of Design, where he
served two terms as president. He also played a central role in the
development of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Around 1890,
William Merrit Chase painted a portrait of Whittredge ('Worthington
Whittredge'). Worthington Whittredge died in
Summit, New Jersey in 1910. Sources: Matthew Baigell, Dictionary of
American Art Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who
Was Who in American Art” |
Per Askart.com, 64 Museums of Art own works of art by Whittredge, including every
major museum in the U.S., almost all of the top secondary museums, and a
number of other museums. This speaks for itself in terms of the high esteem
with which Whittredge practiced art and his numerous achievements and awards
were held.
Note 2) This painting is
Whittredge's manifestation of his interest in and love of trees, forests and
nature and is an early artistic manifestation of his interest in preserving
these aspects of America's heritage. Thus, it is important as an early historic
documentation of this artistic purpose in the second generation of the Hudson
River School painters, as it was executed 1866-1868. As a member of the Hudson River School, this Whittredge painting,
"Pine Trees, Minerva" in the Adirondacks, must be regarded as
contributing to nature preservation in the Adirondacks. As one expert has
stated: "The Adirondacks was overlooked initially by logging interests
during westward expansion. In 1885 it was made a state forest reserve. In 1891
it was further upgraded to a state park. In 1893, as a result of continuing
concern about the activities of logging interests, the state constitution was
amended to make the Adirondacks forever wild and free. Paintings by the Hudson
River School over the previous seventy years were instrumental in establishing
the value of the forest area as a state treasure that should not be exploited
for utilitarian gain."
This painting is also Whittredge's
homage to the great first generation member of the Hudson River School, Asher
B. Durand and successor of Thomas Cole, who was the first leader of the School.
These Durand works often command many thousands of dollars at auction. Anthony F.
Janson discusses in his Worthington Whittredge, a catalogue raisonné, at
pp. 101-105, the nature of Durand's influence on Whittredge, in general, and
specifically on "Pine Trees, Minerva," being offered in this auction
and Whittredge's response thereto. Durand's paintings
of trees, forests and nature, inspired and commanded great respect in
Whittredge, as manifested by "Pine Trees, Minerva," such as the following works by Durand:
Nature Study,
Trees, Newburgh, New York
Study Of Trees 1845
Woodland Glen, c. 1850-55
In the Woods, 1855
Forest in the Morning Light
Landscape (Birch and Oaks)
Woodland Glen
Woodland Path 1845-1850
Note 3) As noted above, this
Whittredge painting has important historical significance in terms of its
manifestation of Whittredge's love of nature and nature preservation and has
artistic significance in terms of the painting's being inspired by Durand and
being in direct lineage from Durand's tree and forest studies. The monumental
vertical size of the canvas, 36" was obviously selected by Whittredge to
enable him to depict realistically the height, and majesty of the large pine
tree and, with great detail, the texture of the bark and the nature of the
trunk of a majestic pine tree in a forest. All of these factors and
Whittredge's past auction records for prices obtained for views similar to
"Pine Trees, Minerva, which were painted by Whittredge, were the basis for
the above estimate of $20,000-$30,000. See below a few examples of the auction
sale prices obtained for Whittredge's works, also depicting trees in the
interior of a forest or close-up, that were factored into such estimate, and
the reader will see that such estimate of $20,000-$80,000 is reasonable and
justifiable: The highest auction price ever paid for a Whittredge painting was
$1,870,000 on 5/24/1989.
Title/Subject: Brook In The Woods
Signed. Oil on canvas. 36.75 in. x 29.25 in. sold for $50,000 on 12/02/2010 at
Sotheby’s, NY
Title/Subject: The Glen Signed. Oil
on canvas. 24 in. x 20 in. sold for $108,100 on 05/20/2009 at Christie’s, NY
Title/Subject: Wooded Landscape
Signed. Oil on canvas. 31.20 in. x 47 in. sold for $96,000 on 11/29/2006 at
Sotheby’s, NY
Title/Subject: The Pine Cone
Gatherers Signed. Oil on canvas. 54.50 in. x 40 in. failed to sell on 05/25/2006
at Christie’s, NY, who provided very high presale estimates of $700,000
-$1,000,000, which would have had a significant effect on the high reserve
established by the consignor in consultation with Christie’s.
Title/Subject: Sun on the Brook
Signed. Oil on canvas. 12 in. x 16 in. sold for $43,020 on 05/04/2006 at Shannon's Fine Art Auctioneers, Milford, CT
Title/Subject: Trout Stream Signed.
Oil on canvas. 12.70 in. x 15.50 in. sold for $90,000 on 12/01/2005 at
Christie’s, NY
Title/Subject: Wooded Interior
Signed. Oil on canvas. 20 in. x 15 in. sold for $69,000 on 05/18/2005 at
Sotheby’s, NY
Title/Subject: A Catskill Brook
Signed. Oil on canvas. 30.30 in. x 44.50 in. sold for $229,000 on 12/03/2002 at
Phillips, de Pury & Company, NYC
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