The Entrance to the Tautira River, Tahiti. Fisherman Spearing a Fish

c. 1895

John La Farge

Associated Names
John La Farge

Artist, American, 1835 - 1910

This is a landscape painting depicting a body of water surrounded by greenery, with tall green and purple mountains in the background under a sky full of dark pink clouds and a strip of bright blue-green. To the right of center, a person stands in the water, submerged up to their thighs. The person faces away from us. Their skin is painted in shades of light orange and tan, and they have an orange cloth wrapped around their waist. They hold a long, thin spear, and look down at the water. Behind them, on the opposite shore, another indistinct person looks on, standing on the grassy green ground. At the edge of the tall mountains is a line of green trees. The wide water reflects the green and purple of the mountains, as well as the pink of the sky.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Adolph Caspar Miller Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 136 x 152.4 cm (53 9/16 x 60 in.)
    framed: 152.4 x 168.3 x 4.4 cm (60 x 66 1/4 x 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1966.6.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist; his estate; (sale, American Art Galleries, New York, 30 March 1911, no. 599); Hamilton Easter Field [1873-1922], Brooklyn, and Ogunquit, Maine;[1] bequest to Robert Laurent [1890-1970], Brooklyn, and Ogunquit, Maine;[2] sold March 1966 to (Graham Gallery, New York); purchased 15 August 1966 by NGA.
[1] See "La Farge Sale, $17,738," The New York Times, 31 March 1911.
[2] The letter of 27 June 1968 from Robert Laurent (in NGA curatorial files) provides provenance information.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1909

  • Exhibition of Glass, Oil and Water Color Paintings and Sketches by John La Farge, N.A., M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1909, no. 71.

  • Thirteenth Annual Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, April-June 1909, no. 162.

  • Oil and Water Color Paintings and Sketches by John La Farge, N.A., Doll and Richards, Boston, 1909, no. 30.

1911

  • Brooklyn Loan Exhibit, Brooklyn Art Association, 1911, no. 72, as Tantiva [sic] River, Tahiti.

1921

  • Second Annual Exhibition, American and European Art, Dallas Art Association, 1921, no. 169, as In the South Sea Islands.

1932

  • American Painting and Sculpture, 1862-1962, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1932-1933, no. 66, as Landscape, Tahiti.

1936

  • An Exhibition of the Work of John La Farge, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1936, no. 30, as Scene in Tahiti.

1938

  • A Century of American Landscape Painting, 1800-1900, Whitney Museum of American Art (no. 41); Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts (no. 37); Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh (no. 75), 1938-1939, as Scene in Tahiti.

1948

  • The Coast and the Sea, Brooklyn Museum, 1948-1949, no. 70, as Scene in Tahiti.

  • John La Farge, 1835-1910, Loan Exhibition, Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1948, probably no. 26.

1965

  • The Collection of Robert and Mimi Laurent and the Field Foundation Collection, Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington; Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, 1965, no. 53, as Scene in Tahiti.

1966

  • John La Farge, 1835-1910, Graham Gallery, New York, 1966, no. 48, as Scene in Tahiti, Entrance to the Tautira River.

1981

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, Timken Art Gallery, San Diego, California, 1981.

1987

  • John La Farge, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1987-1988, no. 84.

2007

  • James Graham & Sons: Celebrating 150 Years, James Graham & Sons, Inc., New York, 2007, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 28.

2010

  • John La Farge's Second Paradise: Voyages in the South Seas, 1890-1891, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, 2010-2011, no. 42, figs. 37, 63, and 107.

2012

  • Gauguin y el Viaje a lo Exótico [Gauguin and the Voyage to the Exotic], Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2012-2013, no. 13, repro.

Bibliography

1909

  • "La Farge's Work Put on Exhibition." The New York Times (2 March 1909).

  • "Mr. John La Farge's Exhibition." Boston Evening Transcript (19 March 1909).

  • "La Farge Art Studies An Interesting Exhibition." Boston Daily Advertiser (20 March 1909).

1911

  • C[ortissoz], R[oyal]. "Paintings and Other Works Left by the Late John La Farge." New-York Daily Tribune (25 March 1911).

1921

  • Watson, Forbes. "The Dallas Exhibition." Arts 1 (April 1921): repro. 30.

1936

  • "Metropolitan Museum Holds Centennial for the Fecund La Farge." Art Digest 10 (April 1936): repro. 34.

  • Sayre, Ann Hamilton. "The Complete Work of John La Farge at the Metropolitan." Art News 34 (28 March 1936): 6.

1951

  • Katz, Ruth Berenson. "John La Farge as Painter and Critic." Ph.D. dissertation, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1951: fig. 63, the medium misidentified as watercolor.

1969

  • Bullard, E. John. "John La Farge at Tautira, Tahiti." Report and Studies in the History of Art 2 (1968-69): 2:146-154, fig. 1.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 78, repro., as Afterglow, Tautira River, Tahiti.

1973

  • Dimensions of Polynesia. Exh. cat. Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, 1973: repro. viii.

1976

  • Yarnall, James Leo. "John La Farge and Henry Adams in the South Seas." M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1976: 48-50, fig. 17.

1977

  • Mandel, Patricia C. F. Selection VII: American Paintings from the Museum's Collection, c. 1800-1930. Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 1977: 76.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 192, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 160, 184-185, as Afterglow, Tautira River, Tahiti.

  • Yarnall, James Leo. "The Role of Landscape in the Art of John La Farge." Ph.D. dissertation, Univeristy of Chicago, 1981: 394-398, 404, fig. 213.

1985

  • Adams, Henry. "Regaining a Paradise: Artist John La Farge and Historian Henry Adams Found Spiritual Renewal in the South Seas." Art and Antiques (March 1985): color repro. 60-61.

1987

  • John La Farge. Exh. cat. National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. New York, 1987: no. 84.

1988

  • Denslow, Julie S., and Christine Padoch, eds. People of the Tropical Rainforest. Exh. cat. Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, traveling exh. Berkeley, 1988: color repro. 47.

  • Yarnall, James Leo. "John La Farge and Henry Adams in the South Seas." The American Art Journal 20 (1988): 78-79, 106, fig. 29.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 224, repro.

1996

  • Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 398-403, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20190481

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