Gift from the a꧅rtist to Thomas Griest, the present owner's grandfather

Pennsylvania Impressionist Edward Redfield is widely regarded as one of the pioneering members of the New Hope Circle. Famed for his vigorous and energetic renderings of the rural scenery which surrounded him, Redfield’s en plein air works have become synonymous with the unsentimental individualism characteristic of early twentieth century American landscape painting. Winter imagery, in particular, is emblematic of Redfield’s career as a landscapist. In The River Hill, the artist incorporates a favorite compositional device of a winding road narrowing in the distance, traveled by a horse-drawn sleigh gently imprinting the freshly fallen snow. Contemporary critics were especially impressed with such scenes, one in particular noting: “His keen appreciation of the latent power buried beneath the snow and ice and hidden in the gaunt leafless trees infuses a sense of life…The barrenness of the aspect gives no hint of a dead world – Nature is simply accumulating forces as she sleeps” (Constance Kimmerle, Edward Redfield: Just Values and Fine Seeing, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 2004, p. 130).