Wesley Webber

The Foggy Crossing

Late 19th century

A luminous Autumn oil on canvas board landscape, probably of the hills in the Hudson River Valley, by the noted American artist William Louis Sonntag (1822-1900). Signed in the lower right. Sonntag was born near Pittsburgh, PA and moved to Cincinnati, OH in the 1840’s to study art. He studied for a brief time with G. Frankenstein at the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Art and his idealized paintings of American wilderness and visionary paintings of imagined European ruins were commercially successful. He traveled twice to Europe in the 1850’s to improve his skills, eventually settling in New York City. He joined the National Academy of Design, where he exhibited his works for forty years. His mature works identify him with the Hudson River School of landscape painters. A romantic and naturalistic painter of his surroundings, Sonntag also created idealized paintings of Roman ruins, recalling his European trips of earlier years. Sonntag was an Associate (1860) and Academician (1861) at the National Academy of Design, and a member of the American Watercolor Society, Artists Fund Society, and the American Art Union...

Beautiful impasto, oil on canvas. Contemporary custom frame. Unsigned, but very well executed painting.

In Mountain Stream, Henry Boese presents a majestic and serene vision of the American wilderness. A crisp, rushing stream flows through the heart of the composition, cascading over r...

Modern Luminist, Hudson River School landscape painting on canvas of the expansive view over the Hudson River as observed at the top of Olana, the historic home of Frederic Church "In the Afterglow" by Jane Bloodgood-Abrams, painted in 2021 Horizontal landscape painting, 48 x 60 x 1 inches unframed with white painted sides wired on reverse for easy hanging Artist's signature is located on lower left Acclaimed artist of the Hudson Valley, Jane Bloodgood, takes her painting to a new level with a new work entitled "In the Afterglow". Her interpretation of this very iconic view (observed from the top of Olana, the historic home of Frederic Church located near Hudson, NY) is set during the very quiet moments of a summer's evening when the sun has dipped beyond the mountains. The crystal blue sky illuminates with the sun's setting rays; a golden band of yellow haze otherwise known as "The Venus Belt" is an atmospheric phenomenon only visible shortly before sunrise or right before sunset. The water reflects the pink and purple glow that forms near the horizon; the dusty shadows of trees tower over the water's edge. We marvel at how simply Jane captures a complex phenomenon, evidence of her unparalleled ability to paint light and endow her work with luminosity. Yet this painting succeeds not only in its representation of the actual landscape and the awe produced by the experience, but also in its contemporary abstraction of atomsphere. The big, open blue sky is stacked with the colors of the sunset against the horizon, calling to mind a Rothko or the other great color field painters who achieve mood and depth from singular color. About the work: Painter Jane Bloodgood-Abrams has become one of the area’s most celebrated artists, gracing viewers with her compositions of sky, river, and earth. Being less concerned with documenting specific scenes, Bloodgood-Abrams is focused on capturing nature’s essence, “the deeply profound moments, where there is a connection to a vital energy.” Her process begins with being in nature, where she allows the emotional energy of the landscape to filter through her psyche. The memory is then translated onto canvas after being worked over a period of time with layers of paint that is applied, wiped away, and reworked. The result is a radiantly dramatic remembrance of Bloodgood-Abram’s encounter with “something beyond everyday life”. The artist’s final hope is for these images to evoke remembrances within the viewer's own personal relationship with nature. Artist Biography: Jane Bloodgood Abrams was born in Queens, New York. She received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, in 1985. Three years later, she earned a Master’s of Fine Arts at the State University of New York in New Paltz. Now she paints in the Hudson River Valley and the Berkshires. EDUCATION Master of Fine Arts Painting - (cum laude) State University of New York at New Paltz 1988 Bachelor of Studio Arts - (cum laude) College of Saint Rose, Albany 1985 SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2015 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2014 Mark Gruber Gallery, New Paltz, NY Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2013 Christopher Clark Fine Art, San Francisco, CA The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown, MA 2012 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY River Gallery, Chattanooga, TN The Storefront Gallery, Kingston, NY "Beyond the Real" 2011 The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown, MA Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY Locust Grove State Historical Site, Poughkeepsie, NY 2010 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2009 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2008 DFN Gallery, New York, NY 2007 Meyer East Gallery, Santa Fe, NM The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown, MA Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2006 Mendenhall-Sobieski Gallery, Los Angeles, CA DFN Gallery, New York, NY Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2005 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY River Gallery, Chattanooga, TN 2004 Albert Shahinian Galleries, Poughkeepsie, NY Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2003 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY Living Room Gallery, Kingston, NY River Gallery, Chattanooga, TN 2002 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2001 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY Artforms Gallery, Albany, NY 2000 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY Mark Gruber Gallery, "Romancing the Landscape" New Paltz, NY 1999 River Gallery, Chattanooga, TN 1998 Alan Sheppard Gallery, Piermont, NY "New Traditions" 1997 Coffey Gallery, Kingston, NY SELECTED JURIED AND INVITATIONAL MULTI-ARTIST EXHIBITIONS: 2016 Byrdcliffe’s Legacy: An ode to Nature and Place, Kleinert Art Center, Woodstock, NY Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region, Hyde Collection Museum, Glens Falls, NY ARTBAR Gallery, Kingston, NY 2015 The Laffer Gallery, Schuylerville, NY Jessica Hagen Fine Art, Newport, RI 2014 Jessica Hagen Fine Art, Newport, RI “Riverscapes,” The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown, MA "Far and Wide" Regional Juried Exhibition, Woodstock Art Association and Museum, Woodstock, NY 2013 Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region, Hyde Collection Museum, Glens Falls, NY Far and Wide" Regional Juried Exhibition, Woodstock Art Association and Museum, Woodstock, NY 2012 "Riverscapes," The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown, MA “The Great Hudson River Exhibition,” Mill Street...