Jasper Francis Cropsey
(American, 1823-1900)
Dawn of Morning, Lake George, 1868
oil on canvas
signed J.F. Cropsey and dated (lower right)
20 x 32 inches.


Provenance:
James L. Brumley, 1868
Edward Brumley, by 1944
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1963
Acquired from the above, 1965

Exhibited:
New York, New York, Macbeth Galleries, American Paintings of the Early 19th Century, 1944, no. 9 (as Dawn of Morning, Lake George)
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Selections from the Collection of Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1963-64, no. 9, (as Evening at Lake George)
San Francisco, California, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, The American Scene, 1963

Literature:
Edward Alden Jewell, "Trends in American Art: Current Exhibitions Illustrate Main Lines of Development in Nineteenth-Century Painting-The Eakins Centennial," New York Times, 9 April 1944, sec. 2, p. 7X
Royal Cortissoz, "Paintings and Drawings," New York Herald Tribune, 9 April 1944, sec. IV, p. 5
Margaret Breuning, "Faithful Accounts of Last Century America," Art Digest 18 (15 April 1944): 9, (as Dawn of Morning)
William S. Talbot, Jasper F. Cropsey, 1823-1900, Washington, D.C., 1970, p. 96, (as Lake George, Evening)
William S. Talbot, Jasper F. Cropsey, 1823-1900, New York and London, 1977, p. 440, (as Lake George, Evening)
Jasper F. Cropsey: Vistas from the Shores. . . Horizons of Hope, 1995, n.p., (as Lake George, Evening)
Franklin Kelly, "Dawn of Morning, Lake George," catalogue entry in Albany Institute of History & Art: 200 Years of Collecting, ed. Tammis K. Groft and Mary Alice Mackay, New York, 1998, p. 110, (as Lake George, Evening)
Andrew Wilton, "Dawn of Morning, Lake George," catalogue entry in Andrew Wilton and Tim Barringer, American Sublime: Landscape Painting in the United States, 1820-1880, London, 2002, p. 142, (as Lake George, Evening)

Dr. Kenneth Maddox of the Newington-Cropsey foundation writes:
"Although known for much of its recent history as Evening at Lake George, the catalogue of the Macbeth Gallery's 1944 exhibition clearly indicates that this painting should be entitled Dawn of Morning, Lake George, while its pendant in the Albany Institute of History & Art, entitled Dawn of Morning, Lake George was intended by Cropsey to be called Lake George, Evening. The title of the Albany's painting is verified by the Plaza Art Galleries, Inc., New York, 30 April 1943, auction record for lot 75, Jasper F. Cropsey's Sunset after the Storm (Lake George) which described the painting as: "A typical Lake George landscape with the luminosity of the sky, clouds and trees after an October storm, painted as only this artist was capable of doing. The glass-like lake reflects the colorful rainbow. Height, 20 inches; width, 33 inches. Signed and dated J. F. Cropsey, 1868." For a discussion of the confusion surrounding the titles for these paintings, see Lake George, Evening (Dawn of Morning, Lake George), 1868, oil on canvas, 20 ? x 32 ? inches, Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, New York, no. 115.

"When this painting was on display at Macbeth Gallery in 1944, Margaret Breuning wrote that Cropsey's "Dawn of Morning, one of his many Lake George scenes, does not, like many of Durand's landscapes, merely transcribe faithfully the thing before him, but presents it with amplitude of expression and a solidity of construction that many be due to his early architectural training. Good design as well as fidelity to observed fact have been happily combined."

This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonne of the artist's work to be published by the Newington-Cropsey Foundation.

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