Prelude

Artist Willard LeRoy Metcalf (American, 1858–1925)

Date1909

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 91.3 × 99.1 cm (35 15/16 × 39 in.)
framed: 120 × 127.6 × 7.6 cm (47 1/4 × 50 1/4 × 3 in.)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Terms

Object number1910.1

Label TextFrom 1883 to 1884 Willard Metcalf was a student at the Académie Julian in Paris, where his fellow students included John Henry Twachtman and Frank Benson. Metcalf was first inspired by the French Barbizon painters, such as Jean-François Millet, whose earth-toned scenes of peasant life he emulated. By the late 1880s, his palette became lighter and his brushstrokes more open. Prelude represents a glimpse of Spring in rural Leetes Island, Connecticut on the Long Island Sound. Metcalf's delicate brush work captures a thin rose-colored veil of buds and pale yellow-green foliage. A winding path and two cows tucked in a grove on the left side of the painting indicate that this is a domesticated landscape. When this canvas was exhibited in New York in 1910, one critic proclaimed the particularly American quality of the scene: "They have no such trees in the landscapes of France or England--trees that have grown unhampered, unprotected, forgotten and with absolute freedom." This assessment clearly expresses cultural values that extend beyond the painting, including the association of landscapes that have escaped urbanization with independence. Provenancesold by artist to Frank W. Bayley (Copley Gallery), Boston, 1909; sold by Bayley to Worcester Art Museum, 1910.

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