East Hampton Beach
Artist
Edward Lamson Henry
(American, 1841-1919)
Date1880
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 23 1/4 x 51 1/4 in. (59.1 x 130.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 28 x 56 in. (71.1 x 142.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 28 x 56 in. (71.1 x 142.2 cm)
ClassificationsAmerican art
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.554
Terms
- Beaches
- East Hampton, NY
- People
- Animals
- Children
- Blue
- Tan
- Yellow
- Red
- Green
- Gray
- White
- Long Island, New York
On View
Not on viewLabel TextEdward Lamson Henry American (1841-1919) East Hampton Beach, 1880 Oil on canvas Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.554 Edward Lamson Henry perfected a conservative, realist style of painting suitable for both historical depictions and densely detailed images of contemporary American life. East Hampton Beach on Long Island was one of his favorite subjects, and his love of detail is fully revealed in the Chrysler's crowded seashore scene. By the 1880s, the beach, easily accessible by rail from New York, was a busy tourist destination replete with bathing houses, seaside tents to catch the ocean breeze, and rustic brush arbors offering shade from the summer sun. To the left, bathers wade in the surf and cling to a lifeline to avoid the sea's undertow. A cluster of horse-drawn buggies and carriages dominates the center. (In Henry's day, buggies were allowed to drive right up to water's edge.) The Chrysler's painting is probably the one that Henry showed under the title Easthampton Beach at the 1881 exhibition of the National Academy of Design in New York. Henry's asking price for that work was a hefty $1,000.
Giovanni Paolo Panini
1745
