Signed 'Daniel Garber' lower right, oil on canvas
28 x 30 in. (71.1 x 76.2cm)
April 1928.
[Humphries P541]
In a Newcomb-Macklin frame.

Provenance: The Artist.
J.J. Gillespie Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Acquired from the above.
Mr. & Mrs. James F. Hillman, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1931.
By descent in the family.
Private Collection, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
EXHIBITED:
"Daniel Garber: Oil Paintings and Etchings." Rockford Art Association, Rockford, Illinois, January 2 - 24, 1929, #6.
LITERATURE:
Lance Humphries. Daniel Garber. Catalogue Raisonné. Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, 2006. vol II. pg. 199, no. 541. (illustrated).
NOTE:
The first owners of Wild Cherry were James F. Hillman and Marguerite W. Hillman. Hillman was a noted businessman, conservationist and civic leader in Pittsburgh. A pioneer in reclamation and remediation of land, Hillman donated more than 3,000 acres for a state park, which, in the 1970's, was the largest of its kind in the country. In 1931, Daniel Garber wrote a letter to Hillman's wife, describing Wild Cherry to its new owner:
"I certainly never got quite so much the feel and atmosphere of a day in May as I did in 'Wild Cherry.' The greens in the foreground meadow and in those young willows have always delighted me.
I mean they could not be mistaken for any other week in a year. I am sure as you live with it you will feel as I do about them.
The distant valley, with wooded Hills in mid morning. The sun penetrating and suffusing there, I was also pleased with. It is a very delicate job - that - of trying to paint those violet hazes over hills in May.
The scene is in Solebury Valley - Two miles from my home. The far distance would be New Hope, Pa. and Lambertville, N.J. but of course, at that distance in that morning everything thing was dissolved in mist and light. You have one of my happier works and I hope you are going to enjoy it.
Sincerely yours,
Daniel Garber."
A photocopy of the letter quoted above, dated February 3, 1931, will accompany this lot.