Twilight: Early Spring

Object Details

• Artist

  Dwight William Tryon (1849-1925)

• Description

  Flat fields; five trees in light foliage.

• Signatures

  Signed D.W. Tryon, 1893, in lower right corner.

• Label

  Twilight: Early Spring is one of the handful of works Tryon painted during the early 1890s. During this period Tryon was primarily occupied with producing works to decorate Charles Lang Freer's Detroit home. Freer considered the painting "unquestionably one of the most charming landscapes" he had ever seen. Twenty years later, Tryon himself all but denounced Twilight: Early Spring and other paintings from the same period, which he felt could neither sustain extended examination nor "stir the emotions as deeply" as his later and, to his thinking, greater works of art.

• Provenance

  To 1893

  N.E. Montross (1849-1932), New York to 1893 [1]

  From 1893 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from N.E. Montross on April 7, 1893 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Voucher file for April 7, 1893, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  A Perfect Harmony (October 14, 2017 to October 8, 2023)

  Surface Beauty: American Art and Freer's Aesthetic Vision (February 23, 2008 to August 1, 2010)

  Pretty Women: Freer and the Ideal of Feminine Beauty (August 13, 2005 to September 17, 2006)

  Art for Art's Sake (July 23, 1997 to January 24, 2008)

  Choice Spirits: Works by Thomas Dewing and Dwight Tryon (March 9, 1996 to July 7, 1997)

  American Art - Dwight William Tryon (May 9, 1993 to February 20, 1996)

  American Paintings (December 27, 1984 to January 18, 1985)

  Winter into Spring: American Landscapes (March 4, 1982 to June 1, 1982)

  American Paintings (March 20, 1981 to September 24, 1981)

  American Paintings (November 11, 1976 to October 12, 1978)

  American Paintings (July 1, 1974 to December 5, 1975)

  Exhibition of Paintings by T.W. Dewing, A.H. Thayer, D.W. Tryon, J.A.McNeill Whistler (February 10 to 26, 1910)

  Pan-American Exposition, Exhibition of Fine Arts (May 1 to November 2, 1901)

• Previous custodian or owner

  N.E. Montross (1849-1932) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  United States

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1890s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Montross, N. E.

• Place

  United States

• Topic

  Trees, Charles Lang Freer collection, Landscapes, Art, American Art, Spring

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Paintings