Seascape

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, lower left: Clark Oliver / 1879

Label

Thomas Oliver painted these two paintings in 1879, just as the recession caused by the market crash of 1873 began to recede. The beached boat in Stranded becomes a metaphor for the era’s financial instability: without sails and higher waters, the ship cannot leave the beach. Large stones likewise prohibit movement along the seashore. In Oliver’s Seascape, a lone fisherman leans against a boat at the water’s edge and looks toward the larger sails in the distance. Does he brave the waters to see what opportunities or failures might await him? Both paintings meditate on water’s limitations and possibilities during this precarious economic period.

From the 2023 exhibition Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2023

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2023

Art History 40.01, American Art and Identity, Mary Coffey, Fall 2023

Creative Writing 10.02, Writing and Reading Fiction, Katherine Crouch, Fall 2023

Geography 11.01, Qualitative Methods, Emma Colven, Fall 2023

Geography 2.01, Introduction to Human Geography, Coleen Fox, Fall 2023

Geography 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Fall 2023

English 30.01, African and African American Studies 34.01, Early Black American LIterature, Michael Chaney, Winter 2024

Writing 5.06, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Winter 2024

Writing 5.07, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Winter 2024

Exhibition History

Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, Israel Sack Gallery and the Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 29, 2023-November 24, 2024.

The New England Image: 19th Century Landscapes from the College Collection, Carpenter Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 14-September 26, 1982.

Publication History

Robert L. McGrath, The New England Image: 19th Century Landscapes from the College Collection, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1982, pp. 52-533 no. 21.

Provenance

Raymond G. Clifton (1895-1968), Pine Cupboard Antique Shop, Franklin, New Hampshire; sold to present collection, 1957.

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Subjects