Object details
Object number
P11s33
Creator(s)
Dodge MacKnight
(Providence, 1860 - 1950, Sandwich, Massachusetts)
Title
The Bay, Belle-Île
Date
1890
Medium
Watercolor on paper
Dimensions
40.6 x 39.4 cm (16 x 15 1/2 in.)
Additional Dimensions
Frame: 74.9 x 64.8 cm (29 1/2 x 25 1/2 in.)
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Inscribed (lower right): Dodge Macknight
Inscribed (verso): (a beach)
Provenance
Offered for sale at an exhibition of Dodge Macknight's paintings of Belle-Île at the gallery Doll & Richards, Boston from 6-18 March 1891.
Entered Isabella Stewart Gardner's collection at an unknown date.
Commentary
Dodge Macknight painted this watercolor of the island Belle-Île, on the coast of Brittany in northwest France. Rich jewel-toned pigments on a wetted surface capture the depth and dimension on the water’s surface.
Less well known today, Macknight was lauded as Boston’s King of Impressionists in the early 1900s. Isabella Stewart Gardner was one of his most significant patrons and friends. In 1915, she opened the only gallery in her Museum dedicated to a contemporary artist—the Macknight Room.
Bibliography
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1912), pp. 1-2. (possibly one of the several watercolors by Macknight listed in the Blue Room)
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), p. 214.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 69.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 143-44, ill.
Hannah Chew, "Dodge Macknight: Boston's Watercolor Painter," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2 April 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/dodge-macknight-bostons-watercolor-painter
Gallery
Macknight Room
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