The Cleveland Museum of Art

• Full conservation statement
  Haseltine used warm, high key colors to paint this calm section of the Traunstein River with a rocky shore in the foreground and a bank overgrown with shrubs and trees on the opposite side. Pure white paint thickly scumbled across the foreground rocks creates glaring reflections of sunlight between shadows cast by lush tree canopies; altogether the scene evokes a late afternoon sun on a warm summer day.
  
  Painted in transparent and opaque colors, the technique included point-of-brush work and admixtures of white which often produced applications resembling pastel. Haseltine’s choice of a bright blue paper introduces a potent chromatic tool. Transparent washes of warm hues of green, blue, and yellow interact synergistically with the blue paper tone to amplify an already vibrant palette. Juxtaposing complementary colors of opaque pale pink and pale orange with the bright blue (paper) enhances the punchy quality of the highlights used to denote tree branches and trunks on the opposite bank.
  
  Paper evaluation is hindered by the sheet’s overall mounted condition, but it is evident that the watercolor is supported by a high-quality blue paper with a slightly to moderately rugged surface texture. The sheet appears to be moderately thick and is likely a variety of wove paper. Individual blue fibers, visible with magnification, indicate the paper was made from blue rags, called self-colored, yet the intensity and uniformity of the blue color also points to the use of a secondary blue dye or pigment added to the paper pulp (before sheet formation).
• Provenance
  By descent in the family of the artist, until 1992

  1992

  (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY)

  1992–?

  Private Collection, Paris, 1992–?

  ?–2018

  (Menconi & Schoelkopf, New York, NY), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

  June 4, 2018–

  The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
• Citations
  Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Willian Stanley Haseltine (1835-1900)/ Herbert Haseltine (1877-1972), New York, 1992 p. 17, 21

  Peters, Emily and Salsbury, Britany. “Acquisitions 2018: Prints and Drawings.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 59, no. 2 (March/April 2019): 20-23. Reproduced: P. 21; Mentioned: P. 20, 21.
• Cite this Page
  {{cite web|title=Traunstein River on the Road to Empfig, Bavaria|url=false|author=William Stanley Haseltine|year=c. 1893–96|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}