Towering Castles, Grand Canyon
painter
Dodge MacKnight
(American, 1860 - 1950)
Date1914
Place MadeUnited States, North America
MediumWatercolor on paper
Dimensions45 x 53 cm (17 11/16 x 20 7/8 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberP11e7
eMuseum ID722871
EmbARK ObjectID10850
TMS Source ID117
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryDodge Macknight painted this watercolor of the Grand Canyon in Arizona in 1914, five years before the area was made into a National Park. Part of a series, “Towering Castles” was exhibited in Boston at the art gallery Doll and Richards, where Isabella purchased it. She toured the American West by train in 1881, and this watercolor likely reminded her of the majestic landscapes she saw on her trip. Over the course of her friendship with Dodge Macknight, Isabella acquired eleven of his paintings and named the Macknight Room after him.
BibliographyNotesCatalogue [White Mountains, Great Canyon, Cape Cod]. Exh. cat. (Boston: Doll and Richards, 25 March 1915), no. 26. (entitled "Towering Castles")
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), p. 216. (entitled "Grand Canyon")
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 73. (entitled "Grand Canyon")
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 146-47, ill. (entitled "Towering Castles, Grand Canyon"; as presumably Autumn 1914)
Karen E. Haas. "Dodge Macknight -- painting the town red and violet..." Fenway Court (1982), pp. 36-47, fig. 7. (entitled "Towering Castles, Grand Canyon"; as 1914)
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), p. 216. (entitled "Grand Canyon")
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 73. (entitled "Grand Canyon")
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 146-47, ill. (entitled "Towering Castles, Grand Canyon"; as presumably Autumn 1914)
Karen E. Haas. "Dodge Macknight -- painting the town red and violet..." Fenway Court (1982), pp. 36-47, fig. 7. (entitled "Towering Castles, Grand Canyon"; as 1914)
MarksNotesInscribed (on a Doll & Richards label, affixed to the frame): B No. 5335
ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the gallery Doll & Richards, Boston for $400 on 13 April 1915.
