Signed 'Daniel Garber' bottom left; also titled on upper stretcher verso, oil on canvas
30 x 30 in. (76.2. x 76.2cm)
Executed in 1922.

Provenance

The Artist.

Acquired directly from the above in 1928 (while on exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery).

James Parmelee, Washington D.C.

The Artist (returned by the above in exchange for The Sycamore in 1929).

Acquired directly from the above in 1953.

Harold D. Saylor, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

By descent in the family.

Alderfer Auction, Hatfield, sale of March 6, 2002, lot 323.

Acquired directly from the above sale.

Collection of Heidi Bingham Stott, Florida.

Exhibited

"Exhibition of Paintings by Daniel Garber, Robert Henri, Frederick J. Waugh," The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., October 12-November 2, 1922; and the Art Club of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 18-December 10, 1922, nos. 7 and 4 respectively (traveling exhibition).

"Exhibition of Paintings by Leading American Artists," Milch Galleries, New York, New York, April 19-May 6, 1923, no. 16.

"An Exhibition of Paintings and Bronzes by Living American Artists," Milwaukee Art Institute, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 10-August 31, 1924, no. 14.

"Paintings by Daniel Garber, N.A.," Macbeth Gallery, New York, New York, March 24-April 13, 1925.

Macbeth Gallery, New York, New York, circa December 1925.

Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, New York, circa December 1925.

"Paintings, Sculpture and Prints in the Department of Fine Arts, Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition," Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June-December 1926, no. 525.

"Eleventh Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings," The Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C., October 28-December 9, 1928, no. 215.

"Annual Exhibit of Paintings, Heinz Art Salon, Season 1931: Delaware Valley Landscapes by Daniel Garber, N.A.," Heinz Art Salon, Heinz Ocean Pier, Atlantic City, New Jersey (exhibition organized by Macbeth Gallery, New York, New York), n.d., no. 17.

"Exhibition of Paintings by Daniel Garber, N.A.," Everhart Museum, Scranton, Pennsylvania, December 1, 1933-January 2, 1934, no. 20.

"Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, Etchings by Daniel Garber," Summer School of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Academy of the Fine Arts, Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, August 1934.

"Exhibition of Oil Paintings: William Langson Lathrop, N.A., Daniel Garber, N.A., John Fulton Folinsbee, N.A., Utica Public Library Art Gallery, Utica, New York, November 1934; and Arnot Art Gallery, Elmira, New York, April 3-28, 1935, nos. 12 and 14 respectively (traveling exhibition).
"Paintings by Daniel Garber," Mount Holyoke Friends of Art, Dwight Art Memorial, South Hadley, Massachusetts, September 21-October 21, 1936, no. 14.

"Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints by Daniel Garber, N.A.," Woodmere Art Gallery (now Woodmere Art Museum), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 1-22, 1942, no. 41.

Literature

Artist's Record Book I, lines 7-10, p. 27.

Artist's Record Book II, p. 126.

Letter from Robert W. Macbeth from Macbeth Gallery to Daniel Garber, May 11, 1925.

Letter from C. Powell Minnigerode of the Corcoran Gallery to Daniel Garber, October 26, 1928.

Artist's Archives, "Sales 1928," and on the reverse "1929."

Letter from C. Powell Minnigerode of the Corcoran Gallery to Daniel Garber, January 17, 1929.

Robert W. Macbeth, Checklist for "Heinz Pier Exhibition," May 1931.

Letter from Harold D. Saylor to Daniel Garber, July 24, 1953.

Walter E. Baum, "Daniel Garber Canvases on View: One-Man Exhibition at Chester Springs Presents 50 Works by Painter," in Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia, August 11, 1934.

Lance Humphries, Daniel Garber: Catalogue Raisonné, Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, 2006. vol. I, Chapter 3, mentioned pp. 166 and 117, (illustrated p. 116); and vol. II cat. P 452, p. 164 (illustrated).

Note

The 1920s marked a period of "relaxed maturity" for Daniel Garber, who gradually moved away from his large decorative compositions to focus on smaller works, which further proved the artist was fully in command of his medium and ultimately granted him a wider audience of collectors. As he confessed to a close friend around that time, Garber became increasingly "interested in the less obvious, in the more subjective and subtle side of things." The works he produced in the 1920s thus present the viewer with a more personal and subjective vision of his beloved Bucks County, where he and his family had moved in 1907.
Rodger's Meadow fits into this category. Set in the close vicinity of Garber's cottage in Cuttalossa, the work features a lonely red barn in an extensive fall landscape. Set on top of a small hill, the building is completely surrounded by nature, which Garber captures in a palette of rich and brilliant autumn hues. In the foreground runs a calm brook, stretching horizontally along the bottom outer edge of the canvas, echoing the elongated blue skyline in the background, above the treetops. Throughout the orange foliage, one can spot the faraway village of Stockton nestled in the quiet hills. The scene conveys a sense of tranquility, serenity and almost desertion. The only human presence is indicated by a distant farm girl who is shown feeding her chickens, and by the delicately arranged haystacks in the foreground, among which lays a mysterious window pane.
With its very precise title that refers to a specific locale that only Garber and local inhabitants would have known, Rodger's Meadow pays tribute to the artist's new intimate lifestyle in the countryside, far away from the bustling industrial town. While the artist used to explore Pennsylvania at large earlier in his career, during the 1920s Garber increasingly began to paint local subjects, immersing himself in the daily life of his neighbors. As such, houses, mills and barns, including the one at present, started to populate the artist's repertoire. By incorporating these things, Garber not only aimed to present a simple way of living or a common landscape, but he also wanted to celebrate the ordinary men and women he befriended, those constantly plowing, planting and storing the crops around them.
Rodger's Meadow was among the twenty or so paintings Garber presented in his second solo exhibition at Macbeth Gallery in New York in 1925. The work was particularly appreciated by critics and reviewers who saw it as evidence for a new direction in the artist's career, one in which the message behind the work equaled the artist's technical mastery, if not surpassed it. The canvas was also celebrated for its ability to convey a warm and sincere atmosphere of human living, making it an "intimate interpretation of homespun episodes in American landscape."