On the Nile

1872

Sanford Robinson Gifford American, 1823-1880

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

On 1 January 1869 Sanford Robinson Gifford set out to tour the countries of the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. After a brief stay in Cairo, he boarded a dahabeah (double-masted sailing vessel) to traverse the Nile. His letters describe a picturesque panorama—animal caravans, men in colorful robes, women swathed in gold and gauze—but On the Nile, painted after his return to his New York studio, presents a deeply subjective impression of atmosphere and light. Relying on a small oil sketch, as well as his memory, Gifford composed his scene in three horizontal bands: shimmering water, parched land, and opalescent sky. The white sail of the felucca (sail boat) casts a luminous reflection on the river’s surface. Shunning any dramatic device or exotic cliché, Gifford captures the subtle and purely sensory experience of bright winter light shining through the dust-filled desert air. From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)

Title On the Nile

Artwork Date 1872

Artist Sanford Robinson Gifford

Life Dates 1823-1880

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Overall: 17 × 31 inches (43.2 × 78.7 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, Associates of the American Wing Fund, Gibbs-Williams Fund, and Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 2011.18

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, lower right: S.R. Gifford 1872

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

the artist

J. I. or J. J. Nesmith (Brooklyn, New York, USA), by 1876

and until at least 1881

[with the dealer Victor D. Spark (New York, USA)

Douglas B. Collins (Longmeadow, Massachusetts, USA), by 1970

[with Vose Galleries (Boston, Massachusetts, USA), by 1972

Eugene B. Sydnor, Jr. (Richmond, Virginia, USA), by 1980, until at least 1987. [with Berry-Hill Galleries (New York, New York, USA) by 1995-96

Robert H. Burns (New York and Hong Kong), from c. 1996 until 2011

2011-present, purchased by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

“Art. The Brooklyn Association. Twenty-fifth Exhibition of Pictures.” New-York Daily Tribune (December 14, 1872): p. 4.

A Memorial Catalogue of the Paintings of Sanford Robinson Gifford. Exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1881, no. 580.

"Loan Collection of Paintings in the West and East Galleries," Handbook no. 6. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 1880-March 1881, p. 4 cat. no. 8 [lent by J. I. Nesmith].

Cikovsky, Nikolai. Sanford Robinson Gifford, 1823-1880. Exh. cat., University of Texas Art Museum. Austin, 1970, p. 71 cat. no. 50 [lent by Douglas B. Collins].

Wilmerding, John, et. al. American Light: The Luminist Movement, 1850-1875. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington D.C., 1980, p. 46 (fig. 39); p. 198 (pl. 22) [lent by Eugene B. Sydnor].

Thompson, D. Dodge. “American Artists in North Africa and the Middle East, 1797-1914.” Antiques 126 (August 1984): pp. 308, 310 (ill.).

American Paintings IV. New York, 1986, pp. 32-33 (ill.).

Avery, Kevin J. and Franklin Kelly, ed. Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford. New York, 2003, pp. 192-194 (ill.), cat. no. 48 [incorrectly dated 1871, lent from a Private Collection].

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Sanford Robinson Gifford, On the Nile, 1872, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, Associates of the American Wing Fund, et al., 2011.18.