Description:
Albert Dakin Gihon (1866-1950) was an American landscape painter. He initially studied with Thomas Eakins in Philadelphia before traveling to Paris to study at the Académie Julian. He represented the United States at numerous Salons of Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and Société des Artistes Français, as well as the Universal Exhibition. He was a member of the Société des Artistes Indéependant. He painted moody landscapes in the evening light.

Description of the painting:
The dark, almost black and white painting exudes peace and quiet, but also has a rather gloomy feel. The center of the painting is occupied by a wooded island. It creates a feeling of a mysterious, inaccessible, and somewhat menacing and dark place. The shadows of the dark trees are reflected in the water, thus most of the composition is engulfed by the darkness of the late evening. There is not much left until complete darkness sets in. Were it not for the remnants of blues and whites in the evening clouds in the sky, the painting could be considered a nocturne, or a night landscape. This may also be encouraged by the crescent moon that has timidly appeared in the sky above the trees.

The artist has observed the last moment of a long summer day when the dusk is prolonged. The landscape is completely deserted. The only places where people may have strolled during the day are the meadows of land behind the island, whose dark green is slowly disappearing into the darkness that desaturates reality. Such lyrical, melancholic paintings were characteristic of the American painter, Albert Dakin Gihon, who focused in the painting on the mood he sought mainly in nature portrayed in the light of the late evening.