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John La Farge

The Entrance to the Tautira River, Tahiti. Fisherman Spearing a Fish, c. 1895

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 136 x 152.4 cm (53 9/16 x 60 in.)

framed: 152.4 x 168.3 x 4.4 cm (60 x 66 1/4 x 1 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Adolph Caspar Miller Fund

Accession Number

1966.6.1

Artists / Makers

John La Farge (artist) American, 1835 - 1910

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

The artist; his estate; (sale, American Art Galleries, New York, 30 March 1911, no. 599); Hamilton Easter Field [1873-1922], Brooklyn, and Ogunquit, Maine;[1] bequest to Robert Laurent [1890-1970], Brooklyn, and Ogunquit, Maine;[2] sold March 1966 to (Graham Gallery, New York); purchased 15 August 1966 by NGA.

[1] See "La Farge Sale, $17,738," The New York Times, 31 March 1911.

[2] The letter of 27 June 1968 from Robert Laurent (in NGA curatorial files) provides provenance information.

Associated Names

American Art Association
Field, Hamilton Easter
Graham Gallery
La Farge, John
Laurent, Robert

Exhibition History

1909: Exhibition of Glass, Oil and Water Color Paintings and Sketches by John La Farge, N.A., M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1909, no. 71.

1909: Oil and Water Color Paintings and Sketches by John La Farge, N.A., Doll and Richards, Boston, 1909, no. 30.

1909: Thirteenth Annual Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, April-June 1909, no. 162.

1911: Brooklyn Loan Exhibit, Brooklyn Art Association, 1911, no. 72, as Tantiva [sic] River, Tahiti.

1921: Second Annual Exhibition, American and European Art, Dallas Art Association, 1921, no. 169, as In the South Sea Islands.

1932: American Painting and Sculpture, 1862-1962, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1932-1933, no. 66, as Landscape, Tahiti.

1936: An Exhibition of the Work of John La Farge, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1936, no. 30, as Scene in Tahiti.

1938: A Century of American Landscape Painting, 1800-1900, Whitney Museum of American Art (no. 41); Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts (no. 37); Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh (no. 75), 1938-1939, as Scene in Tahiti.

1948: John La Farge, 1835-1910, Loan Exhibition, Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1948, probably no. 26.

1948: The Coast and the Sea, Brooklyn Museum, 1948-1949, no. 70, as Scene in Tahiti.

1965: The Collection of Robert and Mimi Laurent and the Field Foundation Collection, Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington; Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 1965, no. 53, as Scene in Tahiti.

1966: John La Farge, 1835-1910, Graham Gallery, New York, 1966, no. 48, as Scene in Tahiti, Entrance to the Tautira River.

1981: Loan for display with permanent collection, Timken Art Gallery, San Diego, California, 1981.

1987: John La Farge, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1987-1988, no. 84.

2007: James Graham & Sons: Celebrating 150 Years, James Graham & Sons, Inc., New York, 2007, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 28.

2010: John La Farge's Second Paradise: Voyages in the South Seas, 1890-1891, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, 2010-2011, no. 42, figs. 37, 63, and 107.

2012: Gauguin y el Viaje a lo Exótico [Gauguin and the Voyage to the Exotic], Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2012-2013, no. 13, repro.

Technical Summary

The support is a very fine, plain-weave fabric that has been lined. The original tacking margins are intact. The thin white ground appears to have been commercially applied. A pale underlayer of pinkish wash is visible in the foreground, while a brighter red underlayer was used in the sky. Subsequent paint is opaque and was applied very thinly and dryly over the fabric nubs. A group of horizontal scratches through the paint layer in the lower left corner appears to be intentional. The surface seems to be selectively varnished, with neighboring areas alternately matte and glossy. Several small damages throughout the surface have been repaired and inpainted.

Bibliography

1909: "La Farge Art Studies An Interesting Exhibition." Boston Daily Advertiser (20 March 1909).

1909: "La Farge's Work Put on Exhibition." The New York Times (2 March 1909).

1909: "Mr. John La Farge's Exhibition." Boston Evening Transcript (19 March 1909).

1911: C[ortissoz], R[oyal]. "Paintings and Other Works Left by the Late John La Farge." New-York Daily Tribune (25 March 1911).

1921: Watson, Forbes. "The Dallas Exhibition." Arts 1 (April 1921): repro. 30.

1936: "Metropolitan Museum Holds Centennial for the Fecund La Farge." Art Digest 10 (April 1936): repro. 34.

1936: Sayre, Ann Hamilton. "The Complete Work of John La Farge at the Metropolitan." Art News 34 (28 March 1936): 6.

1951: Katz, Ruth Berenson. "John La Farge as Painter and Critic." Ph.D. dissertation, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1951: fig. 63, the medium misidentified as watercolor.

1969: Bullard, E. John. "John La Farge at Tautira, Tahiti." Report and Studies in the History of Art 2 (1968-69): 2:146-154, fig. 1.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 78, repro., as Afterglow, Tautira River, Tahiti.

1973: Dimensions of Polynesia. Exh. cat. Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, 1973: repro. viii.

1976: Yarnall, James Leo. "John La Farge and Henry Adams in the South Seas." M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1976: 48-50, fig. 17.

1977: Mandel, Patricia C. F. Selection VII: American Paintings from the Museum's Collection, c. 1800-1930. Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 1977: 76.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 192, repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 160, 184-185, as Afterglow, Tautira River, Tahiti.

1981: Yarnall, James Leo. "The Role of Landscape in the Art of John La Farge." Ph.D. dissertation, Univeristy of Chicago, 1981: 394-398, 404, fig. 213.

1985: Adams, Henry. "Regaining a Paradise: Artist John La Farge and Historian Henry Adams Found Spiritual Renewal in the South Seas." Art and Antiques (March 1985): color repro. 60-61.

1987: John La Farge. Exh. cat. National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. New York, 1987: no. 84.

1988: Denslow, Julie S., and Christine Padoch, eds. People of the Tropical Rainforest. Exh. cat. Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, traveling exh. Berkeley, 1988: color repro. 47.

1988: Yarnall, James Leo. "John La Farge and Henry Adams in the South Seas." The American Art Journal 20 (1988): 78-79, 106, fig. 29.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 224, repro.

1996: Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 398-403, color repro.