Afternoon Sunlight, New England demonstrates Hibbard's exceptional talent for rendering the coldest season in an engaging, hospitable way. With masterful brushwork and a keen sense of color, he captured the highlights and shadows created by late day sunlight cast across the tamped-down path and stone wall, leading the viewer into and through the scene. His design skills also come into play through his use of strong vertical elements on either side of the composition, which act as framing devices and relate visually to the dense copse of trees at center. With the dappled strokes of delicate color that are a hallmark of Hibbard’s early work, Afternoon Sunlight, New England likely depicts either the rural scenery of Belmont or Milton, Massachusetts, where he was known to paint from the late 1910s through the 1920s, or a view among the foothills of southern Vermont as he began to explore the state that became his second home.

More information about this painting...

Trained at the Boston Museum School, Hibbard carried forth the tenets of traditional academic art into the 20^th century. He exhibited widely in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, and launched himself in the Boston art world with a one-man exhibition at the Boston Art Club in 1916. Three years later, a show of his winter scenes at the Guild of Boston Artists received glowing reviews.

Hibbard had long been interested in snow-covered landscapes, and at the recommendation of fellow Boston artist and Fenway Studios resident William J. Kaula, he first traveled to Vermont in 1915 and was immediately taken with the mountains, valleys, and charming residents of the region. By the 1930s, Hibbard established a schedule of spending the winter months in Vermont, and the rest of the year in Rockport, Massachusetts, where he had earlier established the Rockport Summer School of Drawing and Painting. He grew to become a legendary member of the North Shore artists’ colony.

A leader in the community, he remained active in nearby Boston, and in 1965 the Guild of Boston Artists, where Hibbard had exhibited for 45 years, mounted a retrospective exhibition of his work.

Provenance:

Private collection, Newton, Massachusetts

Inscription:

(old writing in pencil on top stretcher) $500.°°