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A Sunrise on Lake George, 1877-79
16⅛ x 30¼ inches
Signed and dated lower right: SR Gifford 1877-9; On verso: A Sunrise/By SR Gifford
Provenance
George Kemp, New York, by 1881
Private collection, France
Jordan-Volpe Gallery, Inc., New York
Private collection, acquired from above, 1994
Sale, Christie’s, The Max N. Berry Collection, New York, New York, January 22, 2026, lot 4B
Exhibited
Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford, October 8, 2003-June 27, 2004, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fort Worth, Texas, Amon Carter Museum; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art.
Literature
Metropolitan Museum of Art, A Memorial Catalogue of the Paintings of Sanford Robinson Gifford, N.A. (New York, 1881), 43, no. 662.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford, October 8, 2003-June 27, 2004 (Yale University Press, 2003), 148, 153, 155, no. 32, illustrated.
Ila Weiss, Poetic Landscape: The Art and Experience of Sanford Robinson Gifford (University of
Delaware Press, 1987), 149, 313.
Opinion Letter, Ila Weiss, November 21, 2025
Related Works
A Coming Storm, 1880, oil on canvas, 28 x 42 inches, signed lower right: S.R. Gifford; Philadelphia
Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
An October Afternoon, 1871, oil on canvas, 13½ x 24 inches, signed lower right: S.R. Gifford; Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Note
A Sunrise on Lake George illustrates Sanford Robinson Gifford’s mastery of Luminism. In an accompanying letter, Gifford scholar Dr. Ila Weiss emphasizes the significance of the work, noting that Gifford first found inspiration in the scenery of Lake George early in his career and returned to the subject on several occasions thereafter. Alongside Jervis McEntee and Richard W. Hubbard, Gifford initially sketched the scene in 1863, later reimagining the subject and developing the composition over a two-year period, between 1877 and 1879. Weiss describes the sun’s “spectacular emergence” as it penetrates the fog and clouds, casts the peaks in pink radiance, and ultimately illuminates the entire scene.[1]
[1] Opinion Letter, Ila Weiss, November 21, 2025.
