Indian Summer
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans
Accession Number
1909.7.51
Tags
houseplainautumn
About this artwork
J. Francis Murphy created intimate landscape scenes that were painstakingly produced. His process required applying one overall wash of paint to the canvas while he was outside so that he could capture the dominant colors of the landscape. He would let the canvas dry for up to a year before completing the painting in his studio. With its spindly trees, soft yellow-green fields and sweeping clouds, Indian Summer conjures the hazy quality of a memory or dream. (Burke, âJ. Francis Murphy,â Amer...