威廉·基思收藏

19世纪旧金山著名的艺术家和梦想家, William Keith (1838-1911) is most known for his impact on preserving and sharing the California landscape through paint and brush. 十大正规网赌平台艺术博物馆 cares for the most comprehensive body of work created by this California Master Landscape Painter. 

基思和缪尔

Keith arrived at Muir's cabin in Yosemite Valley with a letter of introduction in 1872, 一生的友谊很快就发展起来了. The two Scottish immigrants took camping trips together in the High Sierra, saw each other when Muir was in San Francisco and helped inspire each other's work. The idea for the Sierra Club was first formed in Keith's studio during conversations with Muir, Dr. 约瑟夫惊艳, 加州大学的第一任校长, 沃伦·奥尔尼, 一位著名的旧金山律师. 

Muir's concern with scientific accuracy reinforced Keith's early training as a wood engraver in encouraging him to reproduce the exact topography and details of a landscape early in his career. Keith had also already expressed a preference by 1870 to "study altogether from Nature," reflecting in part the admonishments of the influential writer John Ruskin.

基思的艺术转变

Although there was a general trend in Keith's work from tightly worked detail and bright sunlight to broader brushwork and twilight scenes, 他的道路并不简单, 简单的一个. It seems to have reflected a waxing and waning of various influences, 包括他的个人喜好和情绪, 艺术市场力量, 对“老大师”(尤其是伦勃朗)的兴趣, and allegiances to friends of different persuasions about art.

两次在欧洲的漫长逗留, 每次访问期间都要访问美国东部, had particularly strong effects on Keith's artistic development. In 1869, three years after he first began exhibiting and selling paintings, he left San Francisco for visits to New York and Paris and art study in Dusseldorf, 德国. By the time he returned to San Francisco in 1872, his painting style had changed considerably. The abundance of foreground detail typical of early works like San Anselmo Valley Near San Rafael had been replaced by looser, 像在莱尔山画的那样更简略的笔触, 加州山脉. While remaining convinced of John Ruskin's teaching that art must be a faithful rendering of nature, Keith had become enthusiastic about a more "suggestive" approach to capturing the natural world on canvas. 他在欧洲的经历更多的是看艺术, 与艺术家交谈, 他自己画画而不是接受正规的艺术教育. 他没有进入杜塞尔多夫学院, and he seems to have been influenced more by French Barbizon art than by the traditions associated with Dusseldorf, 阿尔伯特·比尔斯塔特在哪里, 沃辛顿Whittredge, 桑福德·吉福德之前也研究过. “现代”法国绘画在波士顿的流行, 1871- 1872年间凯斯在那里待了几个月, 可能加强了这个方向.

Keith's second trip to Europe centered around a stay in Munich in 1883-85. There he again engaged mostly in a diligent self-directed study, focusing on portraiture. Polemics is an example of the portraits he painted in Munich. He later was commissioned to paint portraits of various prominent Californians, 但他的主要作品仍然是风景画.

Probably through the influence of various German and American landscapists working around Munich (who in turn were admirers of French Barbizon art), Keith's landscapes after 1885 generally became even looser in brushwork as well as moodier in effect. 他还画了一些水彩画, 比如灰雨云, 草地上的牛, 在他离开慕尼黑的那些年里, returning to the medium in which he first had begun painting before he took up oils.

在19世纪70年代, Keith had established his reputation as a painter of grand panoramic landscapes, 通常产于高塞拉山脉或其他多山的国家, 有时大到6英尺乘10英尺. This type of painting could serve both as a document of a specific locale and as an homage to divine creation in the form of the impressive American wilderness. 到19世纪90年代, 基思通常画日落时的森林空地, 还有其他宗教色彩. 晚霞 是一个相当戏剧性的例子吗. Like the Eastern painter George Inness, Keith became an adherent to Swedenborgianism. 他相信他迟到了, 黑暗, indistinct works better suggested the spiritual reality that lay beyond the surface forms of nature.

虽然他在加州最出名, Keith's achievements were noted in East Coast newspapers as early as 1872. 基思在波士顿开了几个月的工作室, 直到1911年4月, when New York art dealer William Macbeth published "Memories of William Keith" in the Christian Science Monitor.

著名的纽约艺术收藏家、建筑师查尔斯. 麦克金在1905年认识了基思. 据《十大网赌平台》报道，他说，

"My visit to the studio of this San Francisco artist furnished me the surprise of my life. 我听说过基思, 当然, 我知道他做得很好, 但我对我所看到的完全没有准备. 我环视了一下工作室, 我既惊讶又困惑, for I observed pictures that at the first cursory glance suggested Daubigny and Corot and Millet and others acknowledged great masters of the poetic moods in landscape painting. But none of the pictures were in the slightest degree copies of those famous artists. A new master had arisen who could touch all the keys with which they were so familiar and use them in his own way to impress his individuality on his work. 如此完美和令人钦佩的工作! 我十分钟就买了一万五千美元."

The great naturalist John Muir called William Keith a "poet-painter,指的是基思艺术中的抒情特质. 和他同时代的乔治·英尼斯一样, 温斯洛·荷马, 还有阿尔伯特·平克汉姆·莱德, Keith's style gradually evolved from accurate descriptions of specific places to the use of landscape elements to express and evoke feelings. His love of nature was a common thread throughout his painting career, 也是他和约翰·缪尔之间的联系之一, the founder of the Sierra Club and "father" of the National Parks system.

基思的第一个传记作者，哥哥科尼利厄斯.S.C.

这是基思作品的精神特质, 欣赏他的艺术和学术严谨, 以及对加州山脉的共同热爱, 菲德里斯·康奈利·布雷格修士, F.S.C., of Saint Mary's College, to make Keith the subject of much of his life's work. The Christian Brother and art professor first encountered Keith's paintings during a 1908 visit with Muir in his Martinez home. 哥哥哥尼流, 他同时也是一位艺术家和狂热的登山爱好者, 采访了基思的几十个朋友, 亲戚, 以及其他艺术家, 阅读时期报纸的报道, and traveled to Keith's favorite scenic spots throughout the West.  他后来写了一本900页的基思传记, collected more than 100 of Keith's paintings and gave them to the College, 并组织了几次基思展览. His legacy lives on in the ongoing research and publications and conservation of the artworks.

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