JULAIN WALBRIDGE RIX (1850-1903) Impressionist River Scene at Twilight

An outstanding oil on board river scene with cottages at twilight. A truly captivating piece, from the low light reflecting on the water, the illuminated windows of the cottages to the dramatic movement of the sky, demonstrated by a truly accomplished hand executed with a mix of brushwork and palette knife.

Presented in a substantial, ornate frame of the period with name plate, unsigned.

Known for poetic landscapes, often sunset, illuminated by atmospheric light, Julian Walbridge Rix was early in his career an active painter in California and then on the East Coast. He was born in Peacham, Vermont on December 30, 1850 and moved with his family to San Francisco in 1853. He returned to Peacham four years later to live with his grandmother and graduating from Peacham Academy in 1868. He returned to San Francisco where he was apprenticed to a trading firm and later worked in a paint store painting signs and doing decorative work.

Primarily self-taught, he was briefly a pupil of Virgil Williams at the School of Design. He became close friends with Amédée Joullin and Jules Tavernier, and when the latter established an art colony in Monterey in 1876, Rix was one of the “Bohemians” who followed him there. His studio in Monterey was in the French Hotel, but in 1879 he returned to San Francisco and shared a studio with Tavernier at 729 Montgomery Street. The art market in San Francisco during this period was not a healthy one which prompted Rix to move to Paterson, New Jersey in 1880 and subsequently establish a studio in New York City. This milieu was what he seemed to need to find artistic success. His work was exhibited at the National Academy of Design during the 1880s. He studied art briefly in Europe during 1889 and upon his return, he found that his watercolour and oil paintings were in great demand in the East.

Both frame and painting in superb colour and condition.

Frame 85cm x 69cm

Picture 60cm x 45cm

Free UK Delivery, Please get in touch for international delivery.