Currently not on view
Woman Beside a River,
1880
Alfred Thompson Bricher, American, 1837–1908
x1988-151
Celebrated for his meticulous views of breaking waves and sweeping coastlines, Bricher also depicted small coves or inlets, as in this watercolor, which may have been made on Long Island Sound, where he began spending summers in the early 1880s. The inclusion of a fashionable strolling woman—possibly Alice Robinson, the artist’s second wife—signifies the genre tradition of the figure at leisure that developed in the post–Civil War era, when resort communities began to flourish along the East Coast. Bricher emphasizes the woman’s solitude by employing white gouache at its thickest in her dress, making its brightness stand out in the landscape.
More About This Object
Information
Title
Woman Beside a River
Dates
1880
Maker
Medium
Watercolor and gouache over graphite
Dimensions
sight: 36.2 x 53.5 cm (14 1/4 x 21 1/16 in.)
frame: 62 × 78.5 × 3.5 cm (24 7/16 × 30 7/8 × 1 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Eugene B. Sydnor Jr., Class of 1939
Object Number
x1988-151
Signatures
Signed and dated in watercolor, lower right: ATBricher | 1880
Culture
Type
Materials
Hirschl & Adler, New York; Eugene B. Snydor Jr., Richmond, Virginia;
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1988," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 48, no. 1 (1989): p. 35-59., p. 38 (illus.)
- John Wilmerding et al., American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum: volume 1: drawings and watercolors, (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 87, fig. 1; pp. 301–302, checklist no. 140; p. 302 (left half of verso, rotated illus.)
