In 1880, Francis A. Silva moved with his family to Long Branch, New Jersey on the shore.  Silva had spent the last two decades painting the coastlines of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts but following his move, he began to paint the shoreline of New Jersey almost exclusively.  1880 also heralded Silva’s renewed interest in capturing the landscape at sunset.  Mark Mitchell writes of the paintings of this period “No longer does the diffuse light pervade the landscape.  Instead,…Silva employed a broader range of color locally in the sky and more actively emphasized silhouettes to create a sharp contrast between the tranquility of the foreground and the drama of the sky.  Contrast now plays a far greater role in the sunset than compositional unity or light.”  Mr. Mitchell continues, “More noticeable perhaps than the change in the quality of light is the difference in subject matter portrayed in these later sunsets.  Replacing the lighthouse iconography are domestic scenes of houses along the shore, usually with small piers or beaches where boats are tied up or moored” (Francis A. Silva: In His Own Light, New York, 2002, p. 46).

In The Old House by the River, painted in 1881, Silva employs a high-keyed palette of red and golden yellow. The saturated tones are reflected in the crystalline surface of the water and the subtle coloration found in Silva’s earlier work in the luminist idiom has been replaced to dramatic effect.    The composition is anchored by a house surrounded by tall, lush trees on the right.  A succession of boats makes a bold diagonal from the center of the canvas to the distant horizon off to the left.  The shoreline visually echoes this diagonal as it runs in the shape of a U along the right side towards the house before jetting out again off to the left.  John Wilmerding writes, “In a manner reminiscent of John Frederick Kensett’s characteristic designs, Silva sometimes constructed strong asymmetrical balances of a vertical headland and lateral expanse of water.  At his most imaginative, he might play off a sweeping vista of a receding shoreline to one side with a concentrated massing of vessels with rising masts near the pilings of a dock on the other.  In the juxtaposition of openness and density, lightness and dark, flatness and bulk, Silva could achieve a distilled sense of near abstract design and a compelling visual power” (Francis A. Silva: In His Own Light, p. 14).