Summer Pastures
Artist
William Mason Brown
(American, 1828-1898)
CultureAmerican
Dateca. 1856
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 35 3/4 x 28 3/4 in. (90.8 x 73 cm)
InscribedSigned lower left (on the rock): ;
W.M. Brown;
Newark;
N.J.
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds from Alan and Susan Nordlinger, Mrs. Kathryn K. Porter, Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Waitzer, and Art Purchase Fund
Object number91.46
Not on view
DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting depicting a vertical landscape with a pool in the foreground from which a path or dried stream bed carries the eye dramatically back into space. Trees also balance, but do not dominate, the composition. Cattle and sheep graze throughout, and there is a fenced property in the middle right distance. The foreground is enhanced by some brilliant renderings of plant and floral life such as the mullein in the center. The sky has billowy clouds and cerulean blue coloring.Label TextWilliam Mason Brown American, Newark (1828-1898) Summer Pastures, ca. 1856 Oil on canvas Museum purchase with funds from the Accessions Fund and Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Waitzer, Alan and Susan Nordlinger, and Mrs. Kathryn K. Porter 91.45-46, respectively William Mason Brown first worked as a portrait painter in his hometown of Troy, New York. After moving to Newark, New Jersey, in 1850, he began to produce landscapes like Summer Pastures and its companion River Landscape in Summer (above left). Though in later years he became known mainly for his still life paintings, his obituary in the 1898 Brooklyn Daily Eagle reminded its readers that he had been "a famous landscape painter, his pictures held in high esteem for their fidelity to the rich colorings of nature." ProvenancePrivate collection, Fla., until 1991; Richard York Gallery, New York, 1991; The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., Purchase with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Waitzer, Alan and Susan Nordlinger, Mrs. Kathryn K. Porter, and Art Purchase Fund, 1991. Exhibition History"Treasures for the Community: The Chrysler Collects, 1989-1996," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 25,1996 - February 16, 1997. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. Published ReferencesRichard York Gallery, _An American Gallery_ 6 (New York: Richard York Gallery, 1990), 5b. Franklin Kelly, "American landscape pairs of the 1850's," _The Magazine Antiques_ 146, no. 5 (November 1994): 654-655. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 68-69, no. 36. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6
Pair/Pair