Artwork
Landscape with Buildings
Landscape with Buildings is an oil painting. It dates from 1750 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work is categorized as a landscape painting depicting buildings within a natural setting.
The work is categorized as a landscape painting depicting buildings within a natural setting. As a genre piece from 18th-century America, the composition focuses on architectural forms integrated into the environment rather than narrative or allegorical content. The National Gallery of Art classifies the subject strictly as a landscape, indicating that the primary intent was to record or represent the built environment of the period.
Technique & Style
Landscape with Buildings is executed in oil paint on a wood panel support, measuring 68.9 cm in height and 116.2 cm in width, presenting a horizontal landscape format. Classified as a landscape genre piece, the painting depicts architectural structures within a natural setting, reflecting the stylistic conventions of an anonymous American artist active around 1750.
History & Provenance
Landscape with Buildings was created in 1750, originating in Massachusetts; no specific commissioning patron or early ownership records have been documented. By approximately 1940, it was in the possession of Mrs. Lillian Ullman of Tarrytown, New York, according to correspondence in the National Gallery of Art's curatorial files.
The work entered the inventory of M. Knoedler and Co., New York, by 1942 and was sold in 1947 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch. In 1956, the Garbisches gifted the painting to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it remains part of the permanent collection.
Context
Landscape with Buildings is an oil on wood painting dated 1750, attributed to an anonymous American 18th-century artist. Its classification as a landscape painting and its presence in the National Gallery of Art illustrate its role as an early example of colonial American landscape art.
Overview
This oil painting on wood, titled "Landscape with Buildings," presents an expansive outdoor vista. The composition integrates natural elements such as trees with various structures and numerous human figures. The artist utilizes a interplay of dark and light tones across the scene, while the sky is rendered with a combination of blue and yellow hues, establishing a particular atmospheric quality for the depicted environment.
Artist & collection
