Richard York Gallery

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From a little above a dirt road, we look past a grove of trees to a broad plain and a lake at the foot of towering, hazy mountains in this horizontal landscape painting. The narrow, teal-blue lake runs from left to right along the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition so the hills and mountains take up most of the picture. On the far shore of the lake, steep hills are thick with fern-green trees and growth. Beyond these hills, muted gray and green rocky mountains reach precipitously into the clear, robin’s egg-blue sky so some nearly touch the top edge of the canvas. Snow nestles in the mountain peaks while gauzy mist hovers among the mountain tops. The meadow below is a patchwork of avocado-green and sand-brown fields. An ice-blue stream winds from the lake across the plain while olive-green trees and shrubs dot the fields. Closest to us, in the lower left corner of the painting, small stones and clumps of green grass run along the dirt road, and boulders line it to either side. A band of dark green spanning the road creates a screen a short distance from us, in the lower left quadrant of the composition. Through the trees is a view of minuscule buildings lining the lakeside. In the shadows, under the trees, people camp with a covered wagon covered in white fabric and several animals including a donkey. A red and yellow fire glows, almost lost in the deep shadows of the trees, next to the people. On our right, about a dozen people with a horse-drawn wagon, all tiny in scale, work in the field next to the stream. Farther along the stream, another wagon approaches a covered bridge. On our right and close to us, a dark shadow falls across the landscape. Beyond the shadow, a group of buildings with a church in the center sit on a low hill.
Albert Bierstadt, Lake Lucerne, 1858, oil on canvas, Gift of Richard M. Scaife and Margaret R. Battle, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1990.50.1

Lake Lucerne

Albert Bierstadt · 1858 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1990.50.1

Steve Wheeler, John Storck, Hello Steve, published 1947, bound volume with 13 color photo-screenprints and frontispiece, including prose by John Storck and essay by Adam Gates on wove paper, Gift of Richard York Gallery, New York, and Estate of Steve Wheeler, 1998.85.1

Hello Steve

Steve Wheeler, John Storck · published 1947 · bound volume with 13 color photo-screenprints and frontispiece, including prose by John Storck and essay by Adam Gates on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1998.85.1

Thomas Cole, Study for "Catskill Creek", c. 1844/1845, oil on wood, Avalon Fund, 1998.67.1

Study for "Catskill Creek"

Thomas Cole · c. 1844/1845 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  1998.67.1

Still Life with Crab Apples and Grapes

Joseph Decker · 1888 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2020.162.1

Peter McCallion, Slate, Pipe, Tobacco, and Box of Matches, c. 1890/1900, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase in honor of Edward J. Nygren), 2015.19.195

Slate, Pipe, Tobacco, and Box of Matches

Peter McCallion · c. 1890/1900 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2015.19.195

Joseph Stella, Eggplant, c. 1939, colored pencils and wax crayon with scratching-out on thick wove paper, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James T. Dyke, 1996.47.1

Eggplant

Joseph Stella · c. 1939 · colored pencils and wax crayon with scratching-out on thick wove paper ·  Accession ID  1996.47.1

Joseph Decker, Ripening Pears, c. 1884/1885, oil on canvas, Gift of Ann and Mark Kington/The Kington Foundation and the Avalon Fund, 2004.29.1

Ripening Pears

Joseph Decker · c. 1884/1885 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2004.29.1

A bird in flight with its hooked beak wide open, wings held high, holds a shimmering green and white fish in its talons in this vertical painting. The bird and fish fill the composition against a pale, hazy landscape. Both animals face our left in profile. The bird’s raised wings are dark brown, and the feathers on the underside of its left wing, closer to us, are cream white. Its tail is fanned and the feathers are striped with golden yellow against dark brown. The bird surges forward, to our left, its head low. The yellow eye we see is round and clear, and its dark beak curves to a sharp point over its protruding tongue. The head is striped with cream and brown, creating a mask-like effect. Powerful talons grip the fish, whose tail still dips in the water below. The fish’s mouth gapes and its eye, which is yellow around a black iris, is wide open in the gray and silver head. The top of the fish’s body is iridescent emerald green that fades to tan and parchment yellow along its belly. Light and dark speckles create a dotted pattern along the fish’s length. The body of water meets the horizon about a quarter of the way up the composition. The surface of the water is painted in sage green, golden tan, and pale pink. Cliffs in the distance are soft mauve purple under an aqua-blue sky filled with billowing clouds. White birds with black wingtips fly over the water in the distance.
John James Audubon, Osprey and Weakfish, 1829, oil on canvas on hardboard, Gift of Richard M. Scaife, 2005.32.1

Osprey and Weakfish

John James Audubon · 1829 · oil on canvas on hardboard ·  Accession ID  2005.32.1

Gnarled, ash-brown roots woven through a muddy, rocky bank and sprays of dark green leaves fill this loosely painted, horizontal landscape. Touches of spring green in the lower right corner suggest ground cover. The roots grip the rocks in the top left quadrant of the composition, and layers of rocks pile to the right. The space behind the trees is dark brown, and a few touches of burnt orange suggest flowers or turning leaves.
John Singer Sargent, Wild Olive Tree Roots, Valldemosa, Majorca, 1908, oil on canvas, Avalon Fund and Gift of Virginia Bailey Brown, 1991.177.1

Wild Olive Tree Roots, Valldemosa, Majorca

John Singer Sargent · 1908 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1991.177.1

John Henry Hill, Golden Robin (Northern Oriole), 1866, watercolor and graphite on wove paper, Gift of William and Abigail Gerdts, 2004.165.6

Golden Robin (Northern Oriole)

John Henry Hill · 1866 · watercolor and graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  2004.165.6