FEATURED OBJECT

Franklin Dullin Briscoe (1844-1903)

Autumn Landscape, 1894

With the changing of the seasons in the Delaware River Valley comes the bounty of fall harvest foods, the activity of migrating birds, and, of course, the beauty of colorful foliage! While it may not quite be time for the “fall” part of falling leaves and falling temperatures, Franklin Dullin Briscoe’s Autumn Landscape provides a glimpse into this very near future.

Born in Baltimore, Briscoe moved with his family to Philadelphia in 1848, and the city would become his home base for much of the rest of his life. Exhibiting aptitude for art at an early age, he began studying under the famous American maritime painter Edward Moran (1829 – 1901) at the age of 16. He then traveled to Europe to further his artistic education, completing his training in London and Paris. He had planned to settle in France, but with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Briscoe was forced to return to the United States. Briscoe went on to exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Brooklyn Art Association, and the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. He was also a member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club, the Artists’ Fund Society, and the Union League of Philadelphia.

Like his mentor, Briscoe became best known as a maritime painter. His seascapes and ship scenes, often draped in dramatic weather, were informed by his many ocean expeditions. However, Briscoe also painted portraits, landscapes, and historical scenes, including a huge ten-panel mural of the Battle of Gettysburg that was 13 feet tall and 230 feet long (sadly, now lost). Autumn Landscape is one of his rare surviving landscapes.

The present work is notably similar in subject and palette to his work Wooded Landscape (1886, Oxford Gallery, Rochester, NY). It also shares its title with one of his earlier works, Autumn Landscape (1875, private collection). The 1875 version, however, is somewhat brighter and features fuller and more colorful foliage, reminiscent of early autumn. In contrast, this painting suggests a late autumn day with golden light and lengthening shadows. This work, like many late 19th-century landscapes, shows stylistic influences from the French Barbizon school, American tonalism, and also the Romanticism of famed English landscape painter Joseph M. W. Turner (1775-1851).