In the Wilderness

Provenance

Leon Weiss, New York
Private collection, acquired from the above, 1989
Sale, Christie’s, The Max N. Berry Collection, New York, lot 304

Literature

Ila Weiss Opinion Letter, 2025

Related Works

Wilderness View, 1865, oil on canvas, 10 x 20 inches, signed lower right: SR Gifford; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

The Wilderness, 1860, oil on canvas, 43 x 67 inches; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio

Note

Of the present work, renown Gifford expert Dr. Ila Weiss writes, “Control of color and tone, central to Gifford’s accomplishment, is perfectly illustrated in this work. The image is a celebration of autumn, asserted in the foreground’s yellow foliage and the red and orange shapes of trees and shrubs. These hues are subdued and lightened as they recede step-wise into luminous air, their sunlit accents diminishing in size and frequency with each layer of recession, evolving to warm greens and salmons mixing and blending toward sky color, itself gray-blue at the upper edge warming imperceptibly toward the center distance.”[1] A master of Luminism, Gifford’s work is featured in important museum collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Amon Carter Museum.

[1] Ila Weiss Opinion Letter, November 21, 2025.