Across the Delaware

The Phillips Collection
Acquired by 1921, probably 1917

In composition and technique, Across the Delaware reflects the influence of paintings by Daniel Garber, Spencer’s teacher and colleague at the New Hope School, that depict the quarries of New Hope: square format, horizontal layering of planes, and high horizon line designed to limit perspective and flatten the composition. Just as Garber's The Quarry has the image of the quarry reflected in the Delaware River with scintillating touches of color, the snow-draped dwellings of New Hope in Across the Delaware are mirrored in the river. To achieve this effect, Spencer scraped back the first layer of paint, then carefully placed over it thick horizontal daubs of colors from the embankment. Read more...