Willard Leroy Metcalf

This work will be included in the forthcoming Willard Leroy Metcalf Catalogue Raisonné Project Inc., under the direction of Betty Krulik with Dr. Lisa N. Peters and Deborah Spanierman.

Provenance:
Joseph E. Trask, 1917.
Thence by descent.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, New York, by 1983.

Exhibited:
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of Paintings by Willard L. Metcalf, March 5 - 27, 1912, no. 23.

Lot Essay:
Symphony in Yellow, 1911, expresses Willard Leroy Metcalf's masterful ability to capture the lush fall landscape. A varied range of rich green and golden hues dominant the composition, with an autumnal blue sky overhead. The artist found inspiration for many of his paintings in the vistas of New England and sought to convey their transformations from season to season on canvas. These depictions distinguish Metcalf from other Impressionist painters of the day, as he imbued the northeastern landscape with his own artistic restraint and sense of artistry.

Known as the "poet laureate of the New England Hills," Massachusetts-based Metcalf was a member of the Old Lyme Art Colony, one of the best-known American art colonies and the first to embrace Impressionism. Along with fellow artists that included Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman, and J. Alden Weir, Metcalf was also a member of The Ten, formed in 1898 as a rejection of the guiding principles of the more conservative Society of American Artists. He is said to have been the first American painter to ever travel to Giverny, home of Claude Monet. The winner of the Webb Prize at the Society of American Artists’ Annual Exhibition, Metcalf was also an illustrator and taught at both the Cooper Institute and the Art Students League. This was followed by a period of personal setbacks for the artist in the early 1900s, though it was to be followed by what is now referred to as Metcalf’s “Impressionist Renaissance.”

The present work is arguably one of the artist’s most accomplished paintings. The staccato brushwork and harmonious color palette provide ample evidence of his mastery of paint. Far from being tempted by the sublime or bound to a narrative, Metcalf here shows only interest in the mood of the landscape by capturing its light, texture, and colors. By doing so, he seems to apply Thoreau's methodology of experiencing and communicating with the physical world. This newfound emotion towards the landscape contrasts with Metcalf's earlier, naturalistic period, and is in fact reflected by the title of the work itself. Symphony in Yellow suggests Whistler’s nocturnes and etudes, which express a relationship between art and music, and the artist being born to pick and choose color and form to create a glorious harmony. Here, the colors burst with all the vibrancy of an autumn day, set against the rolling hills and upright trees of the landscape.