The Road to Córdoba, Mexico
painter
Dodge MacKnight
(American, 1860 - 1950)
Date1907
Place MadeMexico, North America
MediumWatercolor on paper
Dimensions37 x 55 cm (14 9/16 x 21 5/8 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberP11s30
eMuseum ID723157
EmbARK ObjectID10846
TMS Source ID113
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner and the artist Dodge Macknight had a shared love for Spanish speaking cultures. Both visited Mexico—Isabella by train in 1881 and Macknight in 1907—when he painted this watercolor of Córdoba. On his trip, Macknight wrote to Isabella, “I’m in the Tropics, the banana leaves wave over me as I walk in deep blue shadows; the hibiscus and the bougainvillea, and vines with flowers of many hues all make a tangle…”
The painting likely reminded Isabella of the landscapes she saw in Mexico, and she purchased it at the art gallery Doll and Richards in Boston when it was exhibited a year later. Over the course of her friendship with Dodge Macknight, Isabella acquired eleven of his paintings and named the Macknight Room after him.
BibliographyNotesCatalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1912), pp. 1-2. (one of the several watercolors by Macknight listed in the Blue Room)
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), p. 215.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 67.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 143, 145, ill.
Karen E. Haas. "Dodge Macknight -- painting the town red and violet..." Fenway Court (1982), pp. 36-47, fig. 5.
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), p. 215.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 67.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 143, 145, ill.
Karen E. Haas. "Dodge Macknight -- painting the town red and violet..." Fenway Court (1982), pp. 36-47, fig. 5.
Hannah Chew, "Dodge Macknight: Boston's Watercolor Painter," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2 April 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/dodge-macknight-bostons-watercolor-painter
MarksNotesInscribed (lower left): Dodge Macknight
ProvenanceNotesProbably purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the gallery Doll & Richards, Boston from 12-24 March 1908.
