Daniel Garber

DANIEL GARBER (AMERICAN 1880-1958) "WATER BIRCH-SPRINGTIME"

Provenance: The Artist.

Collection of the Artis'ts daughter, Tanis Garber Page, 1958.

By descent in the family.

Schwarz Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Acquired directly from the above in 1983.

Collection of Dorrance H. Hamilton.

EXHIBITED:

"Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Daniel Garber, Robert Henri, Frederick J. Waugh," November 18-December 10, 1922, no. 44 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue).

(Possibly) "Daniel Garber, Retrospective Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, Etchings," Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 3-29, 1945, no. 64.

LITERATURE:

American & European Paintings: Philadelphia Collection XX, Summer, 1983, Frank S. Schwarz & Son, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1983, cat. I (illustrated on the front cover).

Lance Humphries, Daniel Garber: Catalogue Raisonné, Volume II, Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, New York, 2006, p. 138, cat. P 386 (illustrated).

NOTE:

Widely considered one of the most influential of the Pennsylvania Impressionists, Daniel Garber was born in Indiana and studied at the Art Academy of Cincinnati before enrolling at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1899. He married fellow PAFA student Mary Franklin, and, after Garber was awarded the prestigious Cresson Scholarship, the two were able to travel to Europe after leaving the school in 1905 to complete their art education.

Upon their return in 1907, Garber settled in Cuttalossa, a hamlet on the Delaware River an hour north of Philadelphia. It was this verdant and varied landscape that would remain his inspiration and subject for the rest of his career. He used a broad spectrum of color for his landscapes and quiet interiors, and the appealing depictions of Bucks County earned him national attention, a teaching position at PAFA, and a seat at the head of New Hope's colony of Pennsylvania Impressionists. He painted en plein air, a naturalist, approach already championed by French landscape painters Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) and Claude Monet (1840-1926). Garber's paintings are lush and light-suffused, with dense greenery and an obvious appreciation for his adopted home.

"Water Birch - Springtime" depicts the small town of Lumberville, north of New Hope along the Delaware River. Garber began painting it in 1918, and completed it the following year. Characteristic of Garber's style, the painting uses a lone, denuded tree to divide the canvas visually down the middle, lending an imposing power to the knotty branches. The perspective of the glistening pool of water, as viewed from the bottom of Fleecydale Road, feels both expansive and intimate, with Garber's subtle touches of gold, green and purple: a direct contrast to the icy surface of the lake. Garber returned to this vista several times, painting the scene in different seasons to capture the effect of the changing light, as fascinated and inspired by the water birch tree as Monet was with the poplars at Giverny.