"Country Twilight"

Circa 1885 oil on canvas painting of a rural cottage twilight landscape done by the well known American artist, William Merritt Post. Signed lower left. The painting has been relined with new stretcher bars. Condition is very good. Frame is old but not original. Overall framed measurements are 28 by 33.75 inches.

William Merritt Post
(1856-1935)
A thoroughly American-trained artist, William Merritt Post fell early on under the influence of Hugh Bolton-Jones, who also became a lifelong friend. Post seems to slip quietly into the chasm between academic 19th- century painting and the more spontaneous strong colorism of the Impressionists. His fondness for the rural landscape with the ever-present meandering stream, generally in autumn colors, dominated much of his life’s output. Like many artists, Post made New York City his base of operations, with frequent forays to New Jersey and Connecticut, until about mid-career. In 1912, he retreated permanently to rural West Morris, Connecticut, and the Bantam River became the dominant theme in his landscapes.


Scholars continually rediscover competent American artists who enjoyed successful careers at the turn of the century, but whose legacy has been lost over time. One of these, William Merritt Post, was a tonalist landscape painter often associated with the Barbizon school and the early New England Impressionists.
Born on December 11, 1856 in Brooklyn, Post was the son of a commodities merchant. His parents separated after sixteen years of marriage and four children, suggesting a troubled home life. Post's attraction to nature began in the fall of 1879, when an excursion from Brooklyn to a marshy region made Post think, "If I were an artist, this region would be one of the first places I would strike out for." Unlike many artists of the day who studied in Paris, Germany and Holland, Post developed his eye for composition, his technical knowledge of the craft of painting and his deft draftsmanship in the artistic community of New York.
Artist biography by Kevin Murphy sourced from Ask Art