SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD (1823-1880).

Today there was such a fucking shitload of depressing news again, a.o. the European Court of Human Rights ordering Italian schools to remove crucifixes, Russia and White Russia doing live exercises simulating an attack on Poland (included in the scenario were nukes), and the goddam scumbag of the mayor of Marseille wanting to grant a building permit to yet another giant mosque...

... that I decided to post something different lest I don't get completely nuts of it all.

The two plates below depict well-known works by American painter Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823 – 1880), a landscape painter of the so-called Luminist school. Luminism, is actually an offshoot of the Hudson River school. It is characterized by its emphasis on light effects in landscapes, and often breathe an aura of tranquility, an effect in many a case attained by depicting calm, still waters under soft, hazy skies.

Gifford traveled extensively to find scenic landscapes, both in the US's northeast and in Europe. During the Civil War, he was a Union soldier, serving as a Corporal in the 7th Regiment of the New York militia. New York City's Seventh Regiment is actually still the proud proprietor of several of Gifford's canvases. It was in New York also that this painter who was as gifted as he was prolific (he painted over 700 works) died in 1880 of malarial fever.




Kauterskill Clove (1862)



The Wilderness


Nite. Let's hope the very best for Christie and McDonnell.


MFBB.