Biografie von Sanford Robinson GIFFORD (1823-1880)

Birth place: Greenfield, Saratoga County, NY

Death place: NYC

Addresses: NYC

Profession: Landscape and portrait painter

Studied: Brown University, 1842-44; John Rubens Smith, NYC (c.1845); worked in NYC until 1855, then studied in Europe until 1858.

Exhibited: NAD, 1847-60, 1861-80; Brooklyn AA, 1861-80; PAFA, 1880; Am. Art-Union; Brooklyn Art Assoc.; Wash. State Hist. Soc., 1963 ("Site of Tacoma"); Regional Painters of Puget Sound, 1870-1920; AIC; Mus. Hist. & Indus., Seattle, WA, 1986 (Mount Rainier); MMA (memorial exhib., c.1880)

Member: ANA, 1850; NA,1854; Century Assoc., 1859; Union League Club

Work: NGA, Wash., DC; NMAA; MMA; CGA; NYHS; AIC; Adirondack Mus., Blue Mountain Lake, NY; Amon Carter Mus.; Newark Mus.; Toledo MA

Comments: An important Hudson River school luminist. He began his career as a portraitist, but in 1843 became attracted to painting landscapes, a direction that was solidified by his 1846 sketching tour of the Catskills and Berkshires. Gifford greatly admired the landscapes of Thomas Cole but instead fixed his focus on pure landscapes ó without Cole"s heroic allegorical themes ó and skillfully filled them with subtle yet dramatic light and atmosphere. He also produced a few still lifes of fruit and flowers during his career. As early as 1853-54, he was painting in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and returned there 1865-66. In 1855-57, and again in 1859, he traveled and studied throughout Europe, painting with Albert Bierstadt in Italy, and meeting the great art critic, John Ruskin. In 1858, he was one of the original members of the Tenth Street Studio Building. During the Civil War, he was one of the few artists to serve as a soldier (rather than artist-correspondent). From 1868-70, he made an extended return trip through Europe. In 1870, he was in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming painting (with J. K. Kensett and T. W. Whittredge); and in 1874 made a second trip West, along the coast from California to Alaska. Signature note: He usually signed as "S. R. Gifford," and seemed to prefer the lower left side of the canvas. Sometimes he signed simply with his initials. About half of his paintings are also dated.

Sources: G&W; DAB; CAB; American Art Review (1880), 226-27, obit.; Sweet, Hudson River School; Cowdrey, NAD; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Swan, BA; Rutledge, PA; Rutledge, MHS; Washington Art Assoc. Cat., 1857; Gardner, Hudson River Idyll"; Panorama (Apr. 1948, 90-91). More recently, see Ila Weiss, Sanford Gifford, 1977; Baigell, Dictionary; Campbell, New Hampshire Scenery, 70-73; P&H Samuels, 187; Pisano, The Long Island Landscape, n.p.; For Beauty and for Truth, 54 (w/repro.); Falk, Exh. Record Series.