EDWIN LORD WEEKS
American, 1849–1903

Florida Everglades

Oil on canvas laid down on board
11½ x 8¼ inches (29.3 x 21 cm)
Framed: 15½ x 12¼ inches (39.5 x 31 cm)

Painted in 1871, this is one of a small number of oil studies made during the artist's visit in that year to Miami and the Florida Everglades. As Kathleen Duff Ganley writes of a large finished work by Weeks, Florida Everglades with Great Blue Heron [signed and dated 1871, oil on canvas, 24 x 34 inches], "It is in this painting that Weeks begins to develop his feel for light and sensuous material elements that become eloquent in his later works" (Kathleen Duff Ganley, ed., The Art of Edwin Lord Weeks (1849-1903), exhibition catalogue, University Art Galleries, Durham, New Hampshire, 1976, p. 14).

Three oil studies by Weeks related to the present work, with the same dimensions, also dating from 1871 – Florida Everglades; Florida Autumn; and Flowering Agave, Florida – were sold from the Bernard Broder collection in Portland, Maine in 2012. The late Weeks authority, Dr. Ellen K. Morris, notes that "these early works demonstrate how much of Weeks' style predated – and transcended – his formal academic education. Indeed ... we see Weeks already handling foliage in the loose 'painterly' manner that would distinguish his work throughout his career" (Morris, ed., 2012, p. 18).

Provenance
Private Collection, Florida

Literature
cf. Ellen K. Morris, ed., "The Collection of Bernard Broder, Gorham, Maine", American and European Paintings [sale catalogue], Barridoff Galleries, Portland, Maine, October 24, 2012, Lots 14, 15, 16 and 48, for illustrations of related Florida subjects by the artist

$21,000

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