Sanford Robinson Gifford (July 10, 1823 – August 29, 1880) was an American landscape painter and a leading member of the second generation of Hudson River School artists. A highly-regarded practitioner of Luminism, his work was noted for its emphasis on light and …

A major Hudson River school painter with extensive European experience, Gifford traveled west several times. In 1870 he joined F. V. Hayden's geological survey to Wyoming, leaving his two artist-companions, John F. Kensett and Worthington Whittredge, behind in Denver.

The second-generation Hudson River School painter Sanford Robinson Gifford built a reputation as a master of light and atmosphere. Born in Greenfield, Saratoga County, New York, as an infant he moved with his family to Hudson, New York, where his father operated and financed iron foundries and a bank.

Gifford began training in New York City to be a portrait painter, but--inspired by the work of the American landscapist Thomas Cole--turned to landscape painting. Gifford spent the summer of 1846 touring and sketching in the Catskill and Berkshire mountains.

Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880) was an American landscape painter and one of the leading members of the Hudson River School, the first major art movement in America, which was founded by Thomas Cole (1801-1848). Gifford credited Cole’s works with stimulating his interest in landscape painting.

Gifford spent the summer of 1846 touring and sketching in the Shawangunk, Catskill, and Berkshire mountains. By 1847, he had begun to show his work at the American Art-Union and the National Academy of Design in New York, where he was elected an associate in 1850 and an academician in 1854.

Gifford visited Isola Bella on Lago Maggiore, Italy, in 1856 and again twelve years later, painting the site numerous times and refining his vision of the scene. In late July 1868, the artist spent several days in the region, recording of one of them: “It was a perfect day, not too hot.

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 761. Sanford R. Gifford (1823–1880) based his atmospheric, light-filled paintings on the close study of nature, often depicting scenes in the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains.

Sanford Robinson Gifford (July 10, 1823 – August 29, 1880) was an American landscape painter and one of the leading members of the Hudson River School. Gifford's landscapes are known for their emphasis on light and soft atmospheric effects, and he is regarded as a practitioner of Luminism, an offshoot style of the Hudson River School.

Mar 23, 1988 · Sanford Robinson Gifford’s An October Afternoon, which he produced after a remarkably productive period in his career, reflects the maturity of the landscape-painting tradition in the United States that stemmed from Thomas Cole [47.1201] and his followers.