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Provenance: Private collection, Orange, Connecticut.
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Notes: Morning at Narragansett
Morning at Narragansett is a major rediscovery in A. T. Bricher's oeuvre,
almost certainly identical to the painting of the same title that was exhibited
in 1876 at both the Chicago Interstate Exposition and the Philadelphia
Centennial Exposition.
Bricher first summered on Rhode Island s Narragansett Bay in 1871, and
each year thereafter until 1878 returned regularly to that subject. Although
he had painted a number of seascapes earlier in his career, his Narragansett
paintings represent his first sustained exploration of New England s coast.
They were inspired perhaps by his growing admiration for the work of John F.
Kensett, a regular visitor to the Newport area, but they also reflect his
knowledge of the crystalline illumination found in the early shorescapes of his
friend, Martin Johnson Heade, with whom he had shared a Boston studio
building in the early 1860s.
Morning at Narragansett s elongated proportions, precise drawing and
glowing atmospheric light mark it as a classic of American Luminism. Its
composition is very closely related to that of Sunrise at Narragansett Pier,
Rhode Island, a smaller painting dated 1873 (private collection; illustrated in
Jeffrey R. Brown, Alfred Thompson Bricher, 1837-1908 (1973) Fig. 33, p. 57),
with the important difference that Morning at Narragansett, with its
translucent waters and rosy hues, is a more resolved and radiant work of
art.
Bruce W. Chambers, Ph. D.
