Another Sanford Gifford

Done in 1866 -- the same year as the "Morning in the Hudson" shown in the last post -- "Hunter Mountain" looks more like a reclining woman than a mountain -- at least to me. The pink breasts -- the full belly -- the pubic bush -- peacefully sleeping with a warm little cabin at her heart -- and a skinny young man driving the cows home as the sun sets behind her head and the moon and planets (Venus ?) rise in the sky. This was a disappointing week for the
Chinese gallery -- as mediocre paintings took over the display cases -- but this is the best Chinese painting I can imagine -- Heaven/mountain/valley --- it's like a trigram from the I Ching. This is the painting of which Thomas Kinkade makes such a cheap, pathetic characature. This is the America worth loving.