Mountain Brook: A Study

between ca. 1863 and 1869

Alexander Helwig Wyant American, 1836-1892

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

Alexander Wyant’s Mountain Brook: A Study, is a marvel of close observation. We do not know exactly when or where Wyant painted it, but he inscribed it, at lower left, A Study, suggesting that it was painted outdoors over an extended period of time. The sun is low, something we know from the delicate shadows on the largest boulder cast by the flowering plants to its right. Wyant’s treatment of the stream is especially impressive, capturing both the reflectivity and the translucence of the water as it flows around and over water plants and rocks

In his influential 1855 publication Letters on Landscape Painting, Asher B. Durand had advised American landscapists “to aim at direct imitation as far as possible,” but had warned that the direct imitation of “running water” is “impracticable.” Wyant would have known Durand. In this small painting, he may have set out to prove the older painter wrong.

Title Mountain Brook: A Study

Artwork Date between ca. 1863 and 1869

Artist Alexander Helwig Wyant

Life Dates 1836-1892

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 9 1/8 × 15 1/2 inches (23.2 × 39.4 cm) Framed: 14 3/4 × 21 1/4 × 2 inches (37.5 × 54 × 5.1 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 2007.147

Markings

Signed Signed, at lower left: A.H. Wyant | A Study

Inscriptions Inscribed, at lower left: A.H. Wyant | A Study

Provenance

by 1916, Mr. Charles W. Gould Collection.
by late 1980s, Thomas Coville Fine Art (New Haven, Connecticut, USA).
2007-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Clark, Eliot. Alexander Wyant. New York, 1916, p. 22 (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Alexander Helwig Wyant, Mountain Brook: A Study, between ca. 1863 and 1869, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 2007.147.