Skip to main contentProvenanceThe artist
[possibly] Havana Tobacco Company, St. James Building, Broadway and 26th Street, New York, New York
Don Dunne, Boston, Massachusetts
Parke-Bernet, New York, New York, March 15, 1947, lot 195
Mrs. William Green, Lubbock, Texas
Alan and Judy Goffman, Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, 1978
Berry Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York, 1985
Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1985
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1992
Exhibition HistoryPublished References
Willard Metcalf
(American, 1858–1925)
Havana Harbor
1902
Oil on canvas
Image: 18 5/16 x 26 1/8 in. (46.5 x 66.4 cm)
Frame: 28 1/8 x 36 in. (71.4 x 91.4 cm)
Frame: 28 1/8 x 36 in. (71.4 x 91.4 cm)
Credit LineTerra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
Object number1992.49
SignedLower left: W.L. Metcalf
InterpretationWillard Leroy Metcalf’s Havana Harbor presents the port in Cuba from a hillside that offers a panoramic view of the wharf and the lush distant hills on the opposite shore of the bay. The slender verticals of tall palms, their foliage stirred by wind, are counterpoints to the horizontal line of the high horizon and the thrusting diagonal of the nearer shoreline crowded with low buildings. The image is richly colored: the lavender and aqua of the calm bay waters, the pink roofs of the buildings, and the brilliant spray of scarlet blossoms at the right suggest the intense light and color that set this southern locale apart from the artist’s usual New England haunts.
Cuba epitomized tropical exoticism in the American imagination at the turn of the twentieth century. Soon after Spain’s defeat in the Spanish American War of 1898, which gave the United States military control of Cuba, American business concerns began investing heavily there, particularly in tobacco and cigar production. The Havana Tobacco Company was among the businesses that marketed Cuban cigars to American consumers. Havana Harbor is the only surviving one of seven or eight paintings made at the invitation of Metcalf’s friend, architect Stanford White (1853–1906), to round out his design for the lavish interior of the company’s new store in the St. James Building at Twenty-sixth Street and Broadway in New York City. Metcalf traveled to Cuba in early 1902 to create his Havana city and harbor scenes, which were set into the store’s walls as mural paintings. These joined the painted decoration of the shop’s ceiling with a tobacco leaf motif (also undertaken by Metcalf), luxurious marble fixtures and flooring, potted palms, and rugs and tapestries to create “the finest store in the world.”1 Its purpose was to imaginatively transport the customer to Havana while asserting the elegance and sophistication of Cuban cigars—in direct rivalry with the domestic product offered in the newly opened American Cigar Company store in the Flatiron Building.
Metcalf had never before experienced the tropical light and color he encountered in Cuba. For the composition of Havana Harbor, however, he borrowed the panoramic vision and high horizon of his earlier painting of another harbor, that of Gloucester, Massachusetts. While the composition of Havana Harbor, with its plunging perspective, is tightly controlled, the brushwork is relatively rapid and free. Havana Harbor is a product of Metcalf’s stylistic transition between softer, brushier effects in thin paint and the rapidly applied spots or parallel strokes of distinct color in almost solid pigment that characterize impressionism. Metcalf used a nearly dry brush to approximate the open effect of the palm fronds as they are stirred by the wind, for example, and rendered the nearer buildings’ roofs in loose parallel lines of contrasting color. Both techniques reflect the artist’s facility in pastel, a solid medium for drawing in rich, soft color, in which Metcalf made several studies in Cuba for the tobacco store project.
1 A. C. David, “The Finest Store in the World,” Architectural Record XVII (January 1905): 4–29.
Cuba epitomized tropical exoticism in the American imagination at the turn of the twentieth century. Soon after Spain’s defeat in the Spanish American War of 1898, which gave the United States military control of Cuba, American business concerns began investing heavily there, particularly in tobacco and cigar production. The Havana Tobacco Company was among the businesses that marketed Cuban cigars to American consumers. Havana Harbor is the only surviving one of seven or eight paintings made at the invitation of Metcalf’s friend, architect Stanford White (1853–1906), to round out his design for the lavish interior of the company’s new store in the St. James Building at Twenty-sixth Street and Broadway in New York City. Metcalf traveled to Cuba in early 1902 to create his Havana city and harbor scenes, which were set into the store’s walls as mural paintings. These joined the painted decoration of the shop’s ceiling with a tobacco leaf motif (also undertaken by Metcalf), luxurious marble fixtures and flooring, potted palms, and rugs and tapestries to create “the finest store in the world.”1 Its purpose was to imaginatively transport the customer to Havana while asserting the elegance and sophistication of Cuban cigars—in direct rivalry with the domestic product offered in the newly opened American Cigar Company store in the Flatiron Building.
Metcalf had never before experienced the tropical light and color he encountered in Cuba. For the composition of Havana Harbor, however, he borrowed the panoramic vision and high horizon of his earlier painting of another harbor, that of Gloucester, Massachusetts. While the composition of Havana Harbor, with its plunging perspective, is tightly controlled, the brushwork is relatively rapid and free. Havana Harbor is a product of Metcalf’s stylistic transition between softer, brushier effects in thin paint and the rapidly applied spots or parallel strokes of distinct color in almost solid pigment that characterize impressionism. Metcalf used a nearly dry brush to approximate the open effect of the palm fronds as they are stirred by the wind, for example, and rendered the nearer buildings’ roofs in loose parallel lines of contrasting color. Both techniques reflect the artist’s facility in pastel, a solid medium for drawing in rich, soft color, in which Metcalf made several studies in Cuba for the tobacco store project.
1 A. C. David, “The Finest Store in the World,” Architectural Record XVII (January 1905): 4–29.
[possibly] Havana Tobacco Company, St. James Building, Broadway and 26th Street, New York, New York
Don Dunne, Boston, Massachusetts
Parke-Bernet, New York, New York, March 15, 1947, lot 195
Mrs. William Green, Lubbock, Texas
Alan and Judy Goffman, Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, 1978
Berry Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York, 1985
Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1985
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1992
Exhibition History
[possibly exhibited] Installation, Havana Tobacco Company, St. James Building, Broadway and 26th Street, New York, New York, store opening January 1903–deinstalled by 1905.
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, July 19–September 14, 1985.
A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]
Selections from the Permanent Collection: Americans at Home and Abroad, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 6–29, 1987.
An American Revelation: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 28–October 1, 1988.
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.
Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 1998.
Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900 (Waves and Waterways: American Perspectives, 1850–1900), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2000. [exh. cat.]
Artistic Independence in 1898: The Ten American Painters, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 4–July 21, 2002.
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.
American Classics, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 13, 2003–February 8, 2004.
Expanded Galleries of American Art with Loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, April 15, 2005–October 2012.
Art Across America, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; National Museum of Korea, Seoul, South Korea; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venues: National Museum of Korea, Seoul, February 4– May 12, 2013; Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, South Korea, June 7–September 1, 2013. [exh. cat.]
Galleries of American Art with loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, February 2014–August 2019.
The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context (L’atelier de la Nature, 1860-1910. Invitation à la Terra Collection). Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny (organizers). Venue: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, France, September 12, 2020–January 3, 2021. [exh. cat. in French]
Galleries of American Art with loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, June 2021–present.
In the Mind's Eye: Landscapes of Cuba Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, Florida (organizer). Venue: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, September 17,2022 - January 8, 2023.
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, July 19–September 14, 1985.
A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]
Selections from the Permanent Collection: Americans at Home and Abroad, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 6–29, 1987.
An American Revelation: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 28–October 1, 1988.
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.
Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 1998.
Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900 (Waves and Waterways: American Perspectives, 1850–1900), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2000. [exh. cat.]
Artistic Independence in 1898: The Ten American Painters, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 4–July 21, 2002.
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.
American Classics, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 13, 2003–February 8, 2004.
Expanded Galleries of American Art with Loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, April 15, 2005–October 2012.
Art Across America, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; National Museum of Korea, Seoul, South Korea; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venues: National Museum of Korea, Seoul, February 4– May 12, 2013; Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, South Korea, June 7–September 1, 2013. [exh. cat.]
Galleries of American Art with loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, February 2014–August 2019.
The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context (L’atelier de la Nature, 1860-1910. Invitation à la Terra Collection). Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny (organizers). Venue: Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, France, September 12, 2020–January 3, 2021. [exh. cat. in French]
Galleries of American Art with loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, June 2021–present.
In the Mind's Eye: Landscapes of Cuba Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, Florida (organizer). Venue: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, September 17,2022 - January 8, 2023.
David, A. C. "The Finest Store in the World." Architectural Record XVII (January 1905): 42–9. Text pp. 48–9.
Cortissoz, Royal. "Willard L. Metcalf, an American Landscape Painter." Appleton's Booklovers Magazine 6:4 (October 1905): 509–11.
Walton, William. "Mural Paintings in the Country Since 1898." Scribner's Monthly 40 (November 1906): 637–40. Text p. 638.
Hassam, Childe. "Twenty-Five Years of American Painting." Art News 26 (April 14, 1928): 22–8.
Baldwin, Charles C. Stanford White. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co, 1931.
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, New York (March 13–15, 1947): lot 195?
American Paintings III 1985. New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., 1985. Text p. 95; ill. p. 95 (color).
de Veer, Elizabeth and Richard J. Boyle. Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1987. Text pp. 67, 69, 213; fig. 72, p. 69 (color).
Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-96, p. 205 (color).
Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 46–7; fig. 35, p. 46 (black & white).
Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 46–7; fig. 35, p. 46 (black & white).
Havana Harbor, Willard Leroy Metcalf. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 1998. Ill. (black & white).
Cartwright, Derrick R. Waves and Waterways: American Perspectives, 1850–1900. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Text p. 27 (checklist); ill. frontispiece (color).
Cartwright, Derrick R. Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Text p. 27 (checklist); ill. frontispiece (color).
Willard Metcalf (1858–1925): Yankee Impressionist. (exh. cat., Spanierman Gallery). New York: Spanierman Gallery, LLC, 2003. Text p. 20; fig. 4, p. 21 (color).
Art Across America. (exh. cat., National Museum of Korea, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art). Seoul, South Korea: National Museum of Korea, 2013. (English and Korean versions). Text pp. 38, 237; ill. fig. 38, p. 39 (color), p. 236 (color).
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. 168; ill. p. 168 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine and Valerie Reis. The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context. (exh. cat, Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny). Paris, France: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2020. Pl. 85, p. 154 (color).
Cortissoz, Royal. "Willard L. Metcalf, an American Landscape Painter." Appleton's Booklovers Magazine 6:4 (October 1905): 509–11.
Walton, William. "Mural Paintings in the Country Since 1898." Scribner's Monthly 40 (November 1906): 637–40. Text p. 638.
Hassam, Childe. "Twenty-Five Years of American Painting." Art News 26 (April 14, 1928): 22–8.
Baldwin, Charles C. Stanford White. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co, 1931.
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, New York (March 13–15, 1947): lot 195?
American Paintings III 1985. New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., 1985. Text p. 95; ill. p. 95 (color).
de Veer, Elizabeth and Richard J. Boyle. Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1987. Text pp. 67, 69, 213; fig. 72, p. 69 (color).
Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-96, p. 205 (color).
Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 46–7; fig. 35, p. 46 (black & white).
Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text pp. 46–7; fig. 35, p. 46 (black & white).
Havana Harbor, Willard Leroy Metcalf. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 1998. Ill. (black & white).
Cartwright, Derrick R. Waves and Waterways: American Perspectives, 1850–1900. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Text p. 27 (checklist); ill. frontispiece (color).
Cartwright, Derrick R. Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Text p. 27 (checklist); ill. frontispiece (color).
Willard Metcalf (1858–1925): Yankee Impressionist. (exh. cat., Spanierman Gallery). New York: Spanierman Gallery, LLC, 2003. Text p. 20; fig. 4, p. 21 (color).
Art Across America. (exh. cat., National Museum of Korea, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art). Seoul, South Korea: National Museum of Korea, 2013. (English and Korean versions). Text pp. 38, 237; ill. fig. 38, p. 39 (color), p. 236 (color).
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. 168; ill. p. 168 (color).
Bourguignon, Katherine and Valerie Reis. The Studio of Nature, 1860-1910: The Terra Collection in Context. (exh. cat, Terra Foundation for American Art with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny). Paris, France: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2020. Pl. 85, p. 154 (color).