Dimensions: Width 23″ Height 13″
Maker: signed LR., MARPLE for William Lewis Marple, (1827 – 1910)
Location: Marin County, California
Date: 1874
Commentary: William L. Marple’s evocative landscape of the ongoing hay harvest, characterized by it’s distinctively luminist qualities, was exhibited in San Francisco in 1874 when Marple was considered to be among the city’s foremost landscapists. Pressing Hay, Marin County appears as #44 in the catalogue of that year’s Mechanic’s Institute exhibition. Among the other exhibitors at the Institute that year were Albert Bierstadt, William Hahn, William Keith, and Norton Bush. Marple’s handling of light and atmosphere reflect a maturing skill and confidence that were likely the results of his earlier trip (1871) to Paris and Munich as well as the growing acclaim of critics and his acceptance by art patrons. The painting is a powerful example of the “wonderful purity”of silvers and grey effects’ that frequently impressed San Francisco reviewers of the day.
Marple’s work had been singled out for praise six years earlier at the California State Agricultural Society’s 1868 exhibition, when a reviewer noted that Marple “exhibited the finest pictures in the art gallery” as at the Mechanics Institute Fair, these paintings were constantly surrounded by admiring groups of visitor, and elicited high eulogiums. (Page 2294 Index to American Art Exhibition Catalogues). Apparently the exhibition judges concurred with the artist’s other admirers and awarded his Cascade Lake a diploma of merit. By the time Pressing Hay appeared, William Marple was already well known for his ability to capture atmospheric texture, light and color. The painting shares these characteristics with another of his landscapes described as possessing “that peculiar hazy atmosphere which is so dreamy in effect — The effect is very fine.” (17 Jan 1872 Daily Evening Bulletin, San Francisco). Favorable mention also appeared beyond the local press. In “Art Beginnings on the Pacific” (Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, Aug. 1868) Marple was described as “a thoughtful, pains-taking artist, who has been quite successful in a variety of well-chosen California views, and whose recent studies of Summit Lake scenes are full of truth and tender beauty. He began his original studies among the tawny foot-hills of El Dorado County, only two years ago, and has made great progress.”
William Lewis Marple was born in New York City, February 16, 1827 and in 1849, at the age of 22, joined the crowd of young fortune seekers bound for California to mine gold. Marple seems to have mined in the Placerville area for a time before taking up painting signs and houses, presumably as a means of making a living in the absence of success in the gold fields. By 1866 Marple had moved to San Francisco where he opened a studio on Montgomery St and pursued his specialty of portraying the region’s landscape. The following year he joined with a group of local artists in organizing an exhibition and sale of their paintings and in 1869 showed at least six landscapes at the gallery of Snow & Roos. Admired as one of the city’s leading artists, Marple took a leading role in the founding of the San Francisco Art Association and exhibited 36 works in its first exhibition mounted in 1872. Also in 1872 Marple formed a partnership with his friend and patron, Soloman Gump, and opened an art gallery which advertised itself as “Marple & Gump’s, Importers of Paintings.”
In 1873 he accompanied Thomas Hill and a group of artists on a sketching trip in the Sierras which had an immediate impact on his work. Pictures on view in his studio after this exhibition were judged “the best nature studies he ever made.” (California Landscape Painting. 1860-1885: Artists Around Keith and Hill, Dwight Miller, Stanford Art Gallery Catalogue, 1975) A drawing by, P Banangras, (collection of the California Historical Society) Three Artist Sketching records one day’s activities on this excursion and depicts Juan Wandesforde, Thomas Hill and William Marple, perched on rocks near a teepee busily sketching on pads.
William Marple left San Francisco in 1877 and returned to New York for a brief period. He subsequently lived in Chicago and in St. Louis where he was a founder and director of the St.Louis Art Association. In 1880 the artist was again in the West painting and prospecting but little is known of his career beyond this point. William Marple died in Aspen Co. Feb 23, 1910. The whereabouts (if they have survived) of significant numbers of William Marples’ paintings are unknown (75 listed in Smithsonian Index) and it is possible that the majority of his California paintings were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Institutions holding his works include the Oakland Museum, California Historical Society, Crocker Art Museum, Society of California Pioneers, and the University of Missouri.
Condition: Painting is in excellent condition and has been professionally conserved.
Price: Sold
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