Afternoon in October

John Francis Murphy, artist

1853–1921

Afternoon in October, 1913

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: canvas; oil

Credit line: William Bridges Thayer Memorial

Accession number: 1928.1783

Not on display

Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

To create tangibly atmospheric landscapes of the northeast United States, John Francis Murphy used a painstaking process. Often beginning outdoors, he painted a first layer to capture the scene’s dominant colors. Leaving the canvas to dry in his studio, sometimes up to a year, he would then apply brown and gold, flattening the paint with a palette-knife for subsequent treatments that included rubbing, lacquering, and glazing. With his sparse, hazy landscapes, Murphy tried to achieve tonal unity, an effect also sought by his contemporaries George Inness and Homer Dodge Martin. Another contemporary artist, Edwin H. Blashfield, congratulated Thayer on her 1913 purchase of this painting and praised her “practice of buying first rate work.”