"Schooner Passing Castle
Island, Boston Harbor," Francis A. Silva, 1874. Oil on
canvas.
In His Own
Light:
NEW YORK CITY - Berry-Hill Galleries has long been interested in
the art of Francis A. Silva (1835-1886); it presents the first
retrospective exhibition of this major American Luminist. Not
only is this the first exhibition devoted to Silva but also the
first in-depth biographical study and catalog of known works.
"Francis A. Silva, In His Own Light" is accompanied by a fully
illustrated scholarly publication compiled by Mark D. Mitchell
with an introduction by John Wilmerding, Sarofim Professor of
American Art, Princeton University.
The April 23 opening is a benefit for the Peabody Essex Museum,
home of an important collection of works by Silva. The exhibit
will run April 24 to June 28.
Luminism as a style of later Nineteenth Century landscape
painting, first identified by John Baur and later by Barbara
Novak and John Wilmerding (who curated the landmark exhibition
"American Light" at the National Gallery), is devoted to light
and water.
Francis A. Silva followed and continued the tradition established
notably by Fitz Hugh Lane, Martin Johnson Heade, John F. Kensett
and Sanford Gifford.
This exhibition consists of approximately 50 works, some of which
are well known examples on loan from museums, and offers newly
discovered treasures that have been lost to sight for decades.
Silva is particularly admired for his Hudson River and New
England Coastal scenes that combine glowing, diffuse light and
subtle color harmonies, such as "Two Unidentified Coasting
Vessels," circa 1870, from the Peabody Essex Museum, "On the
Hudson River, Nyack" circa 1874 (private collection) and
"Schooner Passing Castle Island, Boston Harbor," 1874, from The
Bostonian Society.
Not only the style, but also the subject, place these paintings
firmly in the tradition exemplified by the work of the preeminent
Gloucester native Fitz Hugh Lane. "The Schooner Progress
Wrecked at Coney Island, July 5, 1874, 1875," from the Manoogian
collection, illustrates another phase in Silva's development, a
shift from the purely geographic to the more narrative.
Berry-Hill, 11 East 70th Street, is open Monday to Friday 9:30
am to 5:30 pm, and Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm. For information,
212-744-2300.
