On the Hudson near Haverstraw

One of numerous views that Francis Augustus Silva painted of the Hudson River, On the Hudson near Haverstraw demonstrates the artist’s concern for delicately colored light effects that also informed his earlier work. The view looks northwest, toward the western shore of the river, in the tranquility of late afternoon; the low sun highlights the white sails of several almost-becalmed vessels and tints both water and sky with a subtle range of pastel shades. Unified by the pervasive illumination, the scene is also both precisely rendered—down to the minute ripples on the river’s surface in the foreground and the boats’ rigging—and geographically specific, showing the town of Haverstraw in the distance at the center of the composition and the low spit of land known as Teller’s Point (now Croton Point) extending into the scene from the right. With its flat, horizontal composition, diffuse light, smoothly blended paint application, and hushed mood, On the Hudson near Haverstraw exemplifies the mode of landscape painting that modern scholars call “luminism,” in reference to its intense focus on luminous, glowing light.

Between 1871 and 1876 Silva painted the Hudson River between Haverstraw and the Tappan Zee almost obsessively, with varying points of view and under a variety of light and weather conditions. The setting has been identified with the shift in his work from the soft, diffuse light seen in On the Hudson near Haverstraw to the crisper, more defining illumination of his later work. He was not alone in his attraction to this region of the Hudson, where the river, at its widest point, assumes a lake-like breadth that allows the relatively steep contours of the land to be seen from a softening distance. In the years just before Silva began to paint the Hudson, Sanford R. Gifford painted similarly luminous views of the river in the same region that share its open, horizontal composition, such as his Morning in the Hudson, Haverstraw Bay (TF 1993.11), also in the Terra Foundation’s collection. These serene, distancing treatments of the Hudson River’s scenery evince the maturing of a native landscape tradition, the Hudson River school; artists affiliated with that tradition had mined the same region in earlier decades for images that celebrate the characteristic wildness of American nature.

Collection cameo companion piece, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 1995.

Attitudes Toward Nature, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, September 30, 1995–April 21, 1996.

Permanent collection installation, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–August 27, 1997.

Permanent collection installation, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 9, 2000–February 11, 2001.

Ships at Sea: Sailing Through Summer, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 6–August 26, 2001.

Francis A. Silva (1835–1886): In His Own Light, Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York (organizer). Venue: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York, April 15–June 28, 2002. [exh. cat.]

American Classics from the Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 14–June 15, 2003.

Manifest Destiny, Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois and Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venue: Loyola University Museum of Art, May 17–August 10, 2008. [exh. cat.]

Sotheby's New York, New York (Sale 6400, March 10, 1993): lot 23. Ill. cover (color detail), lot 23 (color).

Mitchell, Mark D. Francis A. Silva (1835–1886): In His Own Light. (exh. cat., Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc.). New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., 2002. Text p. 127 (checklist); pl. 14, p. 80 (color).

Brownlee, Peter John. Manifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. (exh. cat., Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art and Loyola University Museum of Art, 2008. Text p. 37 (checklist).

Bourguignon, Katherine M., and Peter John Brownlee, eds. Conversations with the Collection: A Terra Foundation Collection Handbook. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2018. Text p. 76; ill. p. 76 (color).