Nov 11, 2005 - Sale 2056

Sale 2056 - Lot 93

Price Realized: $ 8,050
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
WALTER L. GREENE STORM KING. 1928.
40x26 inches. Latham Lith & Printing Co., New York.
Condition B+: repaired tears through top and bottom margins, affecting image; restoration in margins.
In the Hudson River Valley, an area already rife with lore, Storm King looms large both physically and psychologically. For centuries, sailors considered the mountain the home of "local spirits" who threatened the safety of their ships with large thunderbolts. However, among Dutch settlers the shape of the mountain looked like a giant pat of butter and they consequently referred to it as "Boterberg." It wasn't until a minor romantic poet, Nathaniel Parker Willis, took offence at that very un-romantic Dutch appellation that the mountain was given the name "Storm King." Greene's image plays with the connotations associated with this later name by emphasizing the dramatic placement and stature of the mountain as it looms over the river, with a train speeding along in the foreground. Zega p. 74.