202 Grand Canyon at Sunset

SOLD
Winning Bid Undisclosed
This item SOLD at 2015 Apr 11 @ 14:30UTC-7 : PDT/MST
Category Western Americana
Auction Currency USD
Start Price NA
Estimated at 80,000.00 - 120,000.00 USD
Grand Canyon at Sunset
Artist: Leigh, William R.Date of Birth: 1866-1955
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 23 x 33 inches
Signed: Signed lower right and dated 1913

Despite his well-known image as a true misanthrope, W.R. Leigh loved nature. And of all the wonders of nature, the wonder he perhaps loved most was the Grand Canyon. This painting, Grand Canyon at Sunset, appears to be a view from the Grandview Trails toward two massive formations known as WotanÕs Throne and Vishnu Temple. Seven formations in the canyon were named for Hindu temples by Major Clarence Dutton in 1880 as he conducted a geological survey of the area. Their shapes reminded him of the temples he had seen in India and he so named them in his incredibly influential 1882 book (a much livelier read than the title would suggest), Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District. Throughout the book, Dutton gives in to the sheer wonder of the canyonlands, speaking about their aesthetic appeal in precisely the sort of terms that would (and did) attract artists like Thomas Moran and W. R. Leigh. For all the attention to the detail of the massive rocks, Grand Canyon at Sunset is primarily a painting about beauty on a majestic scale. The palette, confined to pinks, blues, and purples, with the exception of the white needle at right and the small clumps of greenery, suggests a place wrought by Nature over eons as a singular, holistic, sublime entity. Against the permanence of the canyon, the clouds racing to cover the blue sky are reminders of time on a human scale, a scale we can understand, inhabit, and appreciate. From a letter dated May 3, 1976 to Mr. & Mrs. John Logan, the imminent authority on W. R. Leigh stated ÒW. R. Leigh did three sizeable paintings of the Grand Canyon, of which the one I owned is in my opinion, and that of the artist, by far the finest.Ó