John LaFarge (1835-1910)

American School

PASSING STORM, SAMOA, circa 1890-91

(#8951)

Sight Size: 9¼ x 9½ inches / 20 x 20 framed

Watercolor on board

Inscribed, signed, located and dated lower right:

“To Mr. Bob Davis with /

the complements of the artist J. LaFarge /

Samoa 1892”

Provenance:     Private Collection, Honolulu, Hawaii (since 1950)

               Private Collection, Honolulu, Hawaii (since 2005)

     A fascination with exotic cultures led John LaFarge and his good friend, historian Henry Adams, on an extended journey to the South Seas Islands in 1890 and 1891.  LaFarge said that he was “dreaming of a land of uncorrupted natural beauty”, and this he found in the culture and unspoiled landscape of Samoa.

     The artist was entranced by the lush tropical scenery and beautiful native peoples.  He stayed four months in Samoa, considering this time the high point of his South Pacific tour.  With precise observation and spontaneous brushwork, he captured their way of life in more than 200 oil paintings and watercolors.  

PASSING STORM, SAMOA is a pure landscape, one of a rare few painted during this period.  The clarity of the artist’s vision is evident in this brilliant atmospheric painting.  With its wind-blown palm trees and stormy sky, it exhibits a delicacy of tone and color that is breathtaking, while definitive, yet subtle, brush strokes add definition, detail and dramatics.  John LaFarge, master of color and design, created a South Seas “gem” when he painted this watercolor.  

The original tag from the verso indicates that this artwork was framed by E.H & A.C. Friedrichs Co. sometime after LaFarge returned to New York in November of 1891.  It was personally gifted in 1892 to Bob Davis, whom we have not yet been able to identify.