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The Cabin - Tennessee

John Whorf

American Art

Like his teacher Charles Hawthorne, John Whorf developed as a watercolorist under the powerful influence of John Singer Sargent, whose works were frequently exhibited in the United States throughout the first decades of the twentieth century—most notably at the Brooklyn Museum. In this image of a sun-dappled cabin in rural Tennessee, Whorf emulated Sargent’s use of freely brushed washes to describe the colorful tints of shifting shadows. Sargent apparently approved of Whorf’s direction, purchasing a watercolor from the young man’s first solo exhibition, in Boston, in 1924.
MEDIUM Watercolor over graphite on cream, thick, moderately textured, heavily sized, wove paper
  • Place Made: United States
  • DATES 1928
    DIMENSIONS 15 3/4 x 23 in. (40 x 58.4 cm) Frame: 23 7/8 x 29 15/16 x 1 9/16 in. (60.6 x 76 x 4 cm)  (show scale)
    SIGNATURE Signed lower left: "John Whorf"
    COLLECTIONS American Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 29.68
    CREDIT LINE Carll H. de Silver Fund
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION John Whorf (American, 1903–1959). The Cabin - Tennessee, 1928. Watercolor over graphite on cream, thick, moderately textured, heavily sized, wove paper, 15 3/4 x 23 in. (40 x 58.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Carll H. de Silver Fund, 29.68. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 29.68_PS2.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 29.68_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2006
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