Signed 'DANIEL GARBER' bottom left, oil on canvas
40 x 36 1/4 in. (101.6 x 92.1cm)
Executed circa 1918.

Provenance

The Artist.
Beard Art Galleries, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Acquired directly from the above in 1926.
Collection of Edward Brooks, Saint Paul, Minnesota.
A gift from the above in 1933.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota (deaccessioned in 1956, sale date and location unknown).
Newman Galleries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Acquired directly from the above.
Private Collection, Pennsylvania.
Sotheby's, New York, sale of September 14, 1995, lot 138 (as Weatherby's Oak).
Acquired directly from the above sale.
Robert H. Yaroshuk Art Gallery, Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Private Collection, Pennsylvania.

Exhibited

"Exhibition of Paintings by Daniel Garber," Folsom Galleries, New York, New York, March 10-31, 1919, no. 4.

"Special Exhibition of Paintings by Leading American Artists," Milch Galleries, New York, New York, April 8-30, 1919, no. 9.

"Members Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture," National Arts Club, New York, New York, January 9-February 2, 1924, no. 69.

"Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture," Concord Art Center, Concord, Massachusetts, May 4-July 1, 1924, no. 15.

"Paintings by Daniel Garber, N.A.," Macbeth Gallery, New York, New York, March 24-April 13, 1925, no. 4.

Literature

Artist's Record Book I, line 25-28, p. 19

Artist's Record Book II, p. 108.

"Daniel Garber at Folsom's," in American Art News, 17, no. 23, March 15, 1919, p. 3 (as The White Oak).

Ralph Flint, "Garber Appears in Transitional Stage: Landscapist, in his Exhibition at Macbeth's, Seems in a More Conservative Mood - Other Displays," in Art News 23, no. 25, March 28, 1925, p. I

"Letter from Robert C. Vose to Daniel Garber," May 16, 1925 in Artist's Letter File.

"Letter from Harington Beard to Daniel Garber," June 12, 1926 in Artist's Letter File,.

"Mr. and Mrs. Brook Give Garber Landscape," in Bulletin of the Minneapolis Museum of Art 22, no. 31, December 2, 1933, pp. 157-158.

"Letter from Benet Hogan to Daniel Garber," May 4, 1935 in Artist's Letter File,.

Advertisement for the "Artfull Eye" in American Art Review 8, no. 1, February-March, 1996, p. 52 (illustrated).

Lance Humphries, Daniel Garber: Catalogue Raisonné, Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, 2006. Vol. II, cat. P 380, p. 135 (illustrated, with alternate titles such as Summer Landscape, and Summer Picnic).

Note

Kept in a private Pennsylvania collection since the early 1980s, Weatherby’s Oak was "many times exhibited in galleries" during Garber’s lifetime according to his wife, Mary Franklin Garber - most likely the female figure shown seated in the foreground of the present canvas. Impressive in size, the painting depicts a summer picnic set near Point Pleasant, which can be seen stretching into the distance. As typical with Garber, the landscape is compartmentalized in layered sequences, stretching from the bottom of the canvas to the top edge in very distinct tiers: while the foreground, beautifully dotted with wild flowers, is occupied by the figure of the woman and her picnic basket, the middle section focuses on the faraway vision of the nearby village of Point Pleasant, which is treated in pastel-like tones to offer a slight contrast with the rest of the composition. The largest tier of the canvas is entirely devoted to the sky – a magnificent, abstract surface washed out by soft hues of pink, blues and white –sometimes intertwined with the bare canvas itself, as intended by the artist. To counterbalance this apparent rigidity, Garber introduced two powerful verticals on each side of the work: gigantic trees acting as curtains, only parting to reveal a vision of Eden. They also, and most importantly, give Garber the occasion to prove his expert handling of colors, mixing lush yellows, warm browns, light greens and fiery blues altogether to suggest the subtle effects of light and shadow, and give the impression the sun is dancing through the leaves and environing bushes.