On Valley River, Virginia
William Louis Sonntag
American, 1822–1900
Details
Title
On Valley River, Virginia
Artist/Maker
William Louis Sonntag (American, 1822–1900)
Date
1864
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
9 5/8 x 16 3/4 inches
Credit
Gift of Fred S. and R. Meril Missbach
Accession #
1977.109
Location
Currently not on view
While Sonntag produced highly acclaimed paintings of Italy, which he visited with Robert S. Duncanson, it was his scenes from the American wilderness, especially Virginia, that secured his reputation as a master of color and light. This idyllic landscape, likely based on sketches made during a trip to the Shenandoah Valley in 1859/60, was painted in 1864, the year Union armies marched through the region in a destructive “scorched earth” campaign. The painting, exhibited the same year at the National Academy of Design in New York, would have resonated with a war-weary public accustomed to regarding Virginia as the front lines of the ongoing Civil War.