The Idyll: Bishop Berkley's Rock

c. 1885-1900

After arriving in America from his native Bavaria in 1878, Gaugengigl quickly became a sought after social figure in the Brahmin art world of Boston. He obtained lucrative portrait commissions depicting genteel Bostonians, served on the Council of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for over twenty years and eventually became the director of the Guild of Boston Artists. Gaugengigl had trained in Munich at the Royal Academy, developing a meticulous style in which he painted costumed figures in interiors. He carried over this style to one of his rare landscapes, when he painted this "idyll" from his imagination. Bishop Berkeley was an Anglo-Irish philosopher who spent some time in the Newport area and often meditated and wrote at this Newport location, known as Bishop Berkeley's or "Hanging" Rock. The spirited humor that Gaugengigl was said to exhibit in some of his highly finished genre scenes is surely evident here.

Oil on panel

overall: 11 in x 9 in; framed: 25 in x 23 in

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Vareika

1991.009.002