The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 16, 2022

Autumn, a Wood Path

1876

Sanford Robinson Gifford

(American, 1823-1880)

America, 19th century

Oil on canvas

Unframed: 38 x 31.8 cm (14 15/16 x 12 1/2 in.)

Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection 1922.220

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The artist's namesake, Gifford Pinchot, was the first chief of the United States Forest Service.

Description

Gifford created several paintings depicting forest interiors, including this intimately scaled canvas set amid full autumnal blaze. The dense network of overarching trees casts shadows on the rugged ground below, restricting sunlight to haphazard patches. A solitary hiker is visible in the distance.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed lower right: S R Gifford / 1876

Provenance
(George E. Gage Galleries, 1922)
Citations
Cleveland Museum of Art. "A Check List: American Paintings and Water Colors of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Early Twentieth Centuries in The Cleveland Museum of Art." The Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin. 60:1 (January, 1973). pp 21-35. Mentioned: p 26,
Weiss, Ila. Poetic Landscape: The Art and Experience of Sanford R. Gifford. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1987. Reproduced: p 306; Mentioned: p 307
Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p 85
Green, Tyler. Emerson's Nature and the Artists: Idea As Landscape, Landscape As Idea. Munich: Prestel, 2021. Reproduced: P. 55, fig. 8
Exhibition history

????? Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Loan Exhibition (1878), no. 10 as Woods in Autumn by S.K. [sic?] Gifford.

Austin, TX, University Art Museum, Sanford R. Gifford (25 October - 15 December 1970); traveled to Albany, NY, Albany Institute of History and Art (1 January - 1 February 1971); cat no. ?, ill. p. 76.

Coshocton, OH, Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum, American Paintings 1825-1915 from The Cleveland Museum of Art (7 July - 1 November 1979), traveled to Lakewood, OH, The Kenneth C. Beck Center (17 September - 13 October 1980), p. 11.

Mansfield, OH, Mansfield Art Center, The American Landscape (8 March - 5 April 1981), cat. no. 6, p. 6.

Sanford R. Gifford. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (organizer) (October 25-December 15, 1970); Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY (January 1-February 1, 1971).

American Paintings 1825 - 1915 from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum, Coshocton, OH (organizer) (July 7-November 1, 1979).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1922.220