Daniel Garber, Lowry's Hill

Daniel Garber, Lowry's Hill, 1922

50 x 61 in.

Daniel Garber (1880-1958) was an American Impressionist painter.  Born in Indiana, Garber first studied painting at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, before moving to Philadelphia and studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he also taught for forty years.  Garber is known for his large landscapes, as well as his interior scenes.  Many of Garber's works contain fascinating tonality and coloration.  He frequently used a very limited palette or a particular range of colors to create successful and impactive paintings.  He also repeatedly painted his granddaughter, Tanis. In Lowry's Hill the scene is unusually abstracted; the large, snow-covered shapes of the hill dwarf the small village in the foreground, but it is a bit difficult to discern the details.  When I first saw this, I thought the snowy swaths of hillside were billowing smoke.  The treeline at the top makes the canvas look unfinished.  I think Garber created a work of startling complexity that seems to draw on Native American art.  With its muted colors, but bright sunlight and monumental forms, this simple landscape takes on an unusual character and becomes work of deep fascination.