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#58. The Wasatch Mountains with Salt Lake City and Great Salt Lake.

  21 x 44, oil on canvas. "Gilbert Munger 1877 " lower left. The picture shows Salt Lake City with the Wasatch Mountains behind as viewed across the Great Salt Lake from Antelope Island. (See the discussion of the Wasatch paintings here for more details.) This appears to be a studio painting from sketch #74 and is similar to #219. From the Sporting Gallery, Middleberg VA, via Chicago map dealer Kenneth Nebenzahl in 1977, to the permanent collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Acc. 1977.022), Salt Lake City.

The painting was owned by the geologist Clarence King, who probably obtained it directly from the artist. It was sold for $160 to a Mr. Chapman at the auction of King's estate held at Mendlelssohn Hall, New York City, on 12 March 1903. Not illustrated, it was described in the catalog entry as:
92—Sunset   Gilbert Munger    A serrated range of mountains, partially snow-covered, stretches across the picture, and the rocky summits are illuminated by the warm light of the setting sun. The whole is reflected in the smooth surface of a large sheet of water which extends across the foreground, broken only by the flight of a flock of ducks, who are apparently disturbed by the approach of a thunder storm, which, on the left, casts an ominous shadow on the land and water.   Signed at the left, Gilbert Munger 1878    Height 21 inches; length, 44 inches.   Owner, Trustee of Clarence King Estate.
The description, size, and signature from that 1903 catalog matches this Utah Museum of Fine Art painting, #58. The date following the artist signature is indistinct and could be either 1877 or 1878.

The Munger painting Lake at Sunset, offered at the Exhibition and Sale at the American Art Association Anderson Galleries New York sale 4286 on 12 December 1936, may be this painting too. That auction entry (not illustrated) lists the signature as "Gilbert Munger '87".

IAP 53320007 & 80040594. Tweed 2003 Exhibition n.32. Appears in "Gilbert Munger: On the Trail" by Cummings, in Bulletin 1982,10, Benton Museum of Art, Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, p.15; and "Luminist Paintings in California," by Harrison, in The Magazine Antiques, November 2001, p.670-679. Image from Utah Museum of Fine Arts photo.


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© Michael D. Schroeder 1 Sep 1999; Updated 20 Jul 2022.