“Figures on Frozen Lake” Winter Landscape Painting, Dutch, 19th Century

H. RIVERS American School, 19th century The First Lesson on the Drum Oil on Canvas Signed lower left "H. Rivers" label verso ex. Schwarz Gallery Item...

A vibrant landscape that blends the lines of genre work with the impressionist landscape, it captures a pair of woman caught in the middle of a conversation while a young child is exploring the path barefoot. The traditional dress is reminiscent of a century prior and is evocative of a rural Italian landscape, though the stretchers on the reverse of the painting are simply titled "Lake Shore" with no recorded indication of the placement of the scene. The brilliant cobalt blue of the lake is visible to the far right of the nearly square composition while the trees stretch like spires through the horizon and beyond the scope of the canvas, proportionally dwarfing even the cliffs in the distance behind the women. It is a composition familiar to Grant, with his preference for framing subjects with towering local trees, utilizing a relatively square canvas and including just a hint of water. In this particular example, the interplay of light and shadow in the scene is positively brilliant with Grant's palette switching from high-chroma to low-saturation within the span of a single brushstroke. The scene is signed in the lower right in his typical script, "Frederic M. Grant" and is housed in a good quality period correct carved giltwood frame. ARTIST Born in Sibley, Iowa on October 6th of 1886, Frederic Milton Grant studied at the North Dakota State University before heading to the Art Institute of Chicago. There he trained under John Vanderpool, Alphonse Mucha, Frederick Freer...