1886, Homer Dodge Martin, Mussel Gatherers -- American University Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
During the 1860s, Homer Dodge Martin, a a native of Albany, New York, won accolades for the landscape paintings he created in his New York City studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building from sketches he had made in the Catskills, the Adirondacks, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Admiration of these works, which were closely allied with those of other Hudson River School artists, led to his is election as an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1868 and full membership in 1874.
Martin made his first trip to Europe in 1876, He returned to France in late 1881 and lived along the Normandy coast, first in Villerville until 1884 when he moved to Honfleur. Side trips took him to Caen and Etaples, the well-known art colony frequented by Americans ricans. No longer exposed to hilltop vistas or mountain sites, like those in Little Falls, Adirondacks, Martin daily encountered vast expanses of sunlit beach; that experience, as well as first-hand access to paintings by artists of the Barbizon School, influenced his new work. As evidenced in Mussel Gatherers, he eagerly captured on canvas this new terrain of empty, low-lying dunes and khaki-colored sand, embraced by gently lapping water and hovering clouds. The limited palette reinforces a mood of isolation and palpable loneliness. In 1886 ill health forced Martin to return to America.
1886, Homer Dodge Martin, Mussel Gatherers -- American University Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
During the 1860s, Homer Dodge Martin, a a native of Albany, New York, won accolades for the landscape paintings he created in his New York City studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building from sketches he had made in the Catskills, the Adirondacks, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Admiration of these works, which were closely allied with those of other Hudson River School artists, led to his is election as an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1868 and full membership in 1874.
Martin made his first trip to Europe in 1876, He returned to France in late 1881 and lived along the Normandy coast, first in Villerville until 1884 when he moved to Honfleur. Side trips took him to Caen and Etaples, the well-known art colony frequented by Americans ricans. No longer exposed to hilltop vistas or mountain sites, like those in Little Falls, Adirondacks, Martin daily encountered vast expanses of sunlit beach; that experience, as well as first-hand access to paintings by artists of the Barbizon School, influenced his new work. As evidenced in Mussel Gatherers, he eagerly captured on canvas this new terrain of empty, low-lying dunes and khaki-colored sand, embraced by gently lapping water and hovering clouds. The limited palette reinforces a mood of isolation and palpable loneliness. In 1886 ill health forced Martin to return to America.