Lisa N. Peters
An artist who was also a prominent teacher and an articulate writer,* Elliott Daingerfield (1859-1932) is associated with American Tonalism and held to the attitudes of this movement in his view that the role of the artist was to perceive and understand the beautiful, rather than simply to represent extrinsic fact. With his friend George Inness, whose studio was near his in New York’s Holbein building, he shared a desire to capture spiritual essences in nature, expressing the idea that even the simplest manifestation of nature was a visible sign of God’s presence.
He was one of few artists of his time to paint religious subjects, often portraying them to express themes of universal human emotion. This is apparent in Madonna and Child, where maternal affection is conveyed through the glowing light that passes between mother and infant.
In Two Women the lithe forms of the sprite-like figures exude nature’s aliveness, which for Daingerfield manifested the working spirit of God, bringing life to man and nature alike.
Garden of Eden seemed to glow forth at me when I pulled out the vertical rack in the back bins on which it is hung. It conveys the warmth, lushness, and contentment of such Arcadian places where our consciousness is heightened of the beauty in nature and of its underlying spirit. At the same time, the rich greens in the painting and the Grecian structure in the right distance, suggest that Daingerfield was drawing inspiration for this scene from Blowing Rock, his home and property in the Blue Ridge Mountains of his native North Carolina, where he spent long, pleasurable summers with his wife and two daughters. Today his former residence, built in the Greek Revival style, is the home of the Westglow Resort & Spa, a luxury spa that offers “a perfect place to find renewal of the mind, body, and spirit.” Westglow’s existence thankfully assures the preservation of Daingerfield’s home, while also revealing that the need for such renewal–which Daingerfield expressed in his art–is still with us. All three works by Daingerfield will be included in Summer Selections, to be held at the gallery July 22-September 3, 2010.
J. Francis Murphy, "The Brook," 1880s, oil on canvas, 7 3/4 x 14 1/4 inches
*Among Daingerfield’s writings on fellow American artists is an article of 1917 on his friend J. Francis Murphy (1853-1921), the subject of our current exhibition. Daingerfield wrote that the exacting work of Murphy, developed through close study and a sincere commitment to staying his course, represented a “beautiful seeing” all too often overlooked by a public used to the pace of “modern life,” which “moves too fast to endure this.” Daingerfield stated that in his work Murphy “does not ask us to imagine anything—rather he says simply: ‘I was walking across the fields to-day—the sky was very soft and fleecy, more tone than form or color, and the light over the grass near the little stream was very lovely, and that group of slender, sober birches was so delightful against the light that I have brought it all home to show to you.’” Such an experience is, indeed, felt in observing the Murphys hanging now in the gallery, such as The Brook. [Scribner's 61 (February 1917), 127-30]
