The Silver Sound

A burst of sun through a break in cloud cover moved Hobart Nichols to paint this dramatic sky over a rocky beach on the eastern waterfront of Westchester County. In the 19th century, Hudson River School painters often intended such obvious rays to suggest spiritual meaning, but Nichols seems more intent to show the effects of light on a harshly monotone scene. A meandering series of inlets and peninsulas gives Westchester’s eastern waterfront a very different character than the Hudson shore. The Long Island Sound was not a far trek for Nichols, who was part of the Bronxville Artists’ Colony and lived in the section of Yonkers known as Lawrence Park West.

Nichols displayed The Silver Sound at the National Academy of Design in 1952. Fortunately, the Museum discovered the long-lost painting for sale, damaged, and had it restored.