The Sea: Evening

Maker(s)
Artist: Dwight William Tryon (1849-1925)
Historical period(s)
1907
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
H x W: 76.2 x 121.8 cm (30 x 47 15/16 in)
Geography
United States
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1907.151a-b
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Oil painting

Keywords
evening, ocean, seascape, United States
Provenance

From 1907 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from the artist, Dwight William Tryon in 1907 [1]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [2]

Notes:

[1] See American Paintings Other than by Whistler, A, pg. 2, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. According to Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record, this painting was purchased from D.W. Tryon in August 1907.

[2] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Dwight William Tryon (C.L. Freer source) 1849-1925
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Label

Tryon painted many seascapes but none as monumentally austere as The Sea: Evening. Charles Lang Freer, his principal patron, likened its directness of expression to a Chinese ink painting--Freer's highest form of  praise. Like Whistler, Tryon saw himself as part of an aesthetic elite, and he delighted in this unconscious evidence of his own "kinship with former great minds."

Published References
  • Joseph S. Czestochowski. The American Landscape Tradition: A Study and Gallery of Paintings., 1st ed. New York. fig. 150.
  • Mary Ellen Hayward. The Influence of the Classical Oriental Tradition. vol. 14, no. 2 Chicago, Summer 1979. fig. 18.
  • Nichols Clark. Charles Lang Freer: An American Aesthete in the Gilded Era. vol. 11, no. 4 New York, October 1979. pp. 54-68, fig. 13.
  • Charles Henry Caffin. The Art of Dwight W. Tryon: An Appreciation. New York. p. 71.
  • Susan Hobbs. A Connoisseur's Vision of America: The American Collection of Charles Lang Freer., August 1977. pp. 82, 84-86.
  • Denys Sutton. The Lure of the Golden Bowl. vol. 118, no. 258 London. p. 121.
  • Linda Merrill. An Ideal Country: Paintings by Dwight William Tryon in the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington and Hanover and London, 1990. cat. 33, pp. 144-146.
  • Thomas Lawton, Linda Merrill. Freer: a legacy of art. Washington and New York, 1993. p. 165, fig. 112.
  • Henry C. White, Houghton Mifflin Co. The Life and Art of Dwight William Tryon. Boston and New York, 1930. pp. 168, 226, pl. 32.
Collection Area(s)
American Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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