catalog text
"SPRING LANDSCAPE, EVENING" BY WILLIAM ANDERSON COFFIN (AMERICAN, 1855-1925)
Signed lower right "W.A. Coffin", executed in oil on canvas
Item # 010LUH22
Moody and heavy with atmosphere, this quiet landscape captures the still of evening as the sun sets just behind the leftmost hill, a streak of fiery pink trailing against the horizon as darkness moves in from the far right. A trio of white ducks make their way through the long spring grasses towards a worn dirt path leading to a rustic cottage just a short walk down the lane. The sky is rich with the complexities of evening light cascading against the various layers and levels of the cloud cover as the warmth disappears and leaves the grasses in a nearly teal low-saturation palette.
William Anderson Coffin (1855-1925) of New York City was a landscape and figure painter and art critic. He organized several notable exhibitions and art-related charitable events for relief work in post-World War I France.
William Anderson Coffin was born near Pittsburgh in Allegheny, Pennsylvania on January 31, 1855, the son of Isabella C. Anderson and James Gardiner Coffin. Coffin studied art and graduated from Yale University in 1874. Three years later, he left for Paris and studied with academic artist Léon Bonnat. Coffin exhibited in the Paris Salons of 1879, 1880, and 1882.
In 1882, Coffin moved to New York City, participating in many exhibitions, including at the National Academy of Design. He also wrote as an art critic for Scribner's and Harper's Weekly, among other publications. From 1886 to 1891, he was art critic for The New York Evening Post, and was art editor at the New York Sun from 1896 to 1901.
Coffin directed the Fine Arts Division of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo from 1900 to 1901, and participated as a member of the New York Advisory Board of the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915. Coffin was also president of the American Artists' Committee of One Hundred that established a relief fund for families of French soldier-artists. For this charitable work, Coffin received the medal of the Legion of Honor from the French government in 1917.
Coffin was a member of various arts organizations including the Lotos Club, the Architectural League of New York, and the National Academy of Design. His artwork is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Municipal Gallery of Venice, Italy, the Albright Art Gallery, and the Brooklyn Museum.
William Anderson Coffin died on October 26, 1925 in New York City. (Source: Archives of American Art: Smithsonian Institution)
Measurements: 25 3/4" H x 32" W x 3 3/8" D [frame]; 14 1/4" H x 20 1/4" W [canvas]
Condition Report:
Early giltwood frame, perhaps the first frame for the painting; frame has minor chips, giltwood losses and exposed gesso as expected; some inpainting around rim of frame where some small applied relief elements have been lost. Painting surface in very good stable condition; our conservator cleaned the surface and applied fresh varnish; under UV surface appears to be free of any restoration.