A river front scene in dark tonalities with figures walking by a docked sailboat with an indust…

Savannah Nocturne

Artist Eliot Candee Clark (American, 1883 - 1980)

Datec. 1924 - 1925

Mediumoil on board

DimensionsCanvas: 24 3/4 × 30 inches (62.9 × 76.2 cm)
Framed: 29 × 34 1/8 inches (73.7 × 86.7 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase, partial funding provided by the Ann H. Cordell Bequest.

Object number1998.7

On View

On view

CopyrightThe images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextEliot Clark was born in New York City and grew up painting under the tutelage of his father, Walter Clark, a landscape painter. In 1924 and 1925, Clark spent the winters in Savannah as a visiting instructor for the Savannah Art Club. He set up his studio in an old cotton warehouse along Bay Street for an unfettered view of the Savannah River. Savannah Nocturne captures one of the moonlight-drenched cobblestone ramps that lead down to the riverfront. Clark wrote of the Savannah scenery: “What impressed me most was the soft, enveloping atmospheric light quite different from the contours and strong shadows of New England.” The merging of foreground and background in Savannah Nocturne represents a marriage between two distinct styles of painting; uniting the softer moodiness common to paintings by James McNeil Whistler with the impressionist application of broken brushwork and dappled light.

Subject MatterSavannah River, River Street, Savannah, Georgia, United States of America

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