Landscape
William KEITH
(American, born Scotland, 1839 - 1911)
Landscape
Date1888
Mediumoil on board
DimensionsOverall: 21 1/2 x 26 1/2 in. (54.6 x 67.3 cm)
frame: 25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John Rolland Keyes
Object number1974.37.1
Subject(s)
- forest
- landscape
Collection
- 19th century American
- American
Sub-Collection(s)
- British
- Scottish
- American
On View
On viewLabel TextWilliam Keith was one of the foremost California plein-air painters in the generation of American landscape specialists after the likes of Bierstadt, Church, and Whittredge. Like Thomas Hill, Keith became a colleague of the environmentalist, John Muir, who like Keith, was Scottish-born. He was one of a group of Muir supporters arguing for the establishment of Yosemite National Park in 1890. This landscape typifies Keith’s approach to Barbizon-school inspired plein-air painting. It was likely done somewhere in the Bay area, where he had a house in Berkeley and a studio in San Francisco. Although chastised by Muir for it, Keith consistently overrode empirical observation of nature to lend a spiritual quality through idealizing lighting effects, like the heightened lavender-tinged light at the close of day of this landscape.
