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About Herman D. Murphy
Herman Dudley Murphy (1867-1945) was born at Marlboro, Massachusetts on 25 August 1867 and received his first art instruction at the Boston Museum School with Otto Grundmann and Joseph R. DeCamp. After completing his courses in Boston, Murphy spent the next five years in Paris under Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian. Back in the Boston area, Murphy began a successful career in which painting was combined with the crafting of hand-carved frames: his framing business was eventually incorporated into Vose Galleries Boston. Teaching was another important aspect of Murphy's career; he spent thirty-six years as a drawing instructor at Harvard University's School of Architecture. Murphy was a popular artist who had solo shows in most major cities including Chicago, New York, Detroit, St. Louis, and Buffalo, in addition to Boston.
The placement of the picturesque tree as an inverted triangle was a clever and bold idea on Murphy’s part. Its major branch forms a perfect diagonal, dividing the picture in half. A parallel diagonal, much less noticeable, is the pathway in the foreground. The tree’s major diagonal is countered and softened by the gentle movement of the road, off into the other direction. Besides the interesting texturing of the bark, one should notice the warm and rich use of russets throughout, suggesting autumn. In the immediate foreground is a deep veridian green, suggesting a fully shaded area, in which the viewer stands on this hot afternoon. |
Paintings by Herman D. Murphy
| Countryside |
| oil on canvas, 12 x 16 inches |
| signed: lower right |
| date: circa 1910 |
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