Gilbert Gaul ( 1855-1919 )
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Rush to the Fire - c. 1900 Oil en grisaille on board 22 x 16 inches
Signed (at lower right): Gaul Click image for detailed view |
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Provenance:
Estate of Richard T. York
A prolific painter of a wide range of aspects of American life, Gilbert Gaul was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and studied at the Claverack Military Academy in New York, with the hope that he would then enter the navy. Health problems prevented this from happening and instead Gaul enrolled at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design, the latter to which he was elected a member in 1882.
Upon completion of his studies, Gaul spent several years in Tennessee painting Civil War scenes and also worked as an illustrator for Harper’s Monthly. He made frequent trips to the American West where he made studies of Native Americans and their way of life; he turned many of these studies into paintings upon returning to his studios back east. His work earned him, along with ten other artists, a commission from the Federal Government to illustrate the Eleventh Census of 1890. The document they produced was one of the most comprehensive studies of Native American life published to date.
Gaul painted an impressive range of subjects though all were consistently of life in this country; in addition to Civil War scenes and images of the Native Americans’ lifestyle, he portrayed workers, prisoners, executioners, strollers and children, as well as unpopulated landscapes. Whether depicting meditative silence or the heat of the battle, with realistic detail or in an impressionistic style, Gaul painted either in full color or en grisaille.
Rush to the Fire, painted circa 1900, is an example of Gaul’s skillful ability to paint using only black and white. Expressing the intensity of the moment, Gaul contrasts the panicked horses in full, thundering flight against the calm determination of the fireman who drives them. Behind him with an expression of urgency, the second fireman calls out but it would seem that his voice is lost in the chaos of the moment. Smoke and dust mix behind him indicating just how fast they are traveling. Serving as an anchor to this riotous scene are the spectators who watch quietly from the sidelines and the solid architecture that provides depth to the composition.
