$33,020
Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000
American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists
Auction: June 2, 2024 at 2:00 PM ET
Signed ‘K. NUNAMAKER’ bottom right, oil on canvas
16 x 18 in. (40.6 x 45.7cm)
Private Collection, Pennsylvania.
Part of a second generation of New Hope artists, Kenneth Nunamaker relocated from Glenside, Pennsylvania to Centre Bridge in 1923. Enchanted by the idyllic beauty of Bucks County, Nunamaker dedicated the next three and a half decades to depicting the region's landscapes, picturesque villages, and vernacular architecture, as in By the Pond, Early Autumn. Here, a sun-dappled pond gives way to a narrow path, which, in turn, culminates in a stone farmhouse in the composition's middle ground. The trees that frame the house on either side are leafless but not completely barren–a confirmation of the season. Rendered in a carefully blended palette of orange, brown, and yellow–and against a forested hillside that appears to dissolve in a lavender haze–the landscape is animated by rich impasto and a confident treatment of light and atmosphere. A hymn to autumn and to Nunamaker's beloved Bucks County, By the Pond, Early Autumn captures the soul of the region through a tapestry of color and texture.