Free shipping on orders over $60$5 flat rate under $604 items: 10% off · 8 items: 20% off
You save $47.97
Free shipping over $60 · 30-day returns · Dispatched in 1–2 business days
Along the River Bed by William Wendt is one of those images that never dates. Our studio recreates it as a hand painted oil painting — textured, color-rich, and ready to hang as canvas wall art in a home office, study, or reception area.
1923
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 in.
Private collection.
William Wendt, considered a giant among American Impressionists, is often referred to as 'The Dean of Southern California'. His adoption of an impressionistic style can be dated to 1896-97 when he and his close friend George Gardner Symons were painting together in the Los Angeles area. Both men were in the avant-garde of American painters at the time in that they were open to the Impressionist style that had begun in France in the mid-19th century. Southern California was a perfect location for translating the bright colors, atmospheric conditions, and shimmering light that were characteristic of the French Impressionist style to a quintessentially American location.
William Wendt's landscapes reveal as much about the grandeur of the West as the artist's own religious beliefs. Wendt believed in the theory of intelligent design and believed that God's creative purpose for the Earth is as evident in the natural world as in scripture. The tranquility, strength and sense of well-being of his work appealed to a wide audience. It had a sober sort of poetry about it, one critic wrote, 'like a fine, familiar hymn'. Wendt painted exactly what he saw in nature with warm colors and outstanding effects of light and shadow.
In the 1926 Stendahl Galleries exhibition catalogue, the authors wrote of the painting, 'Again we tread the bosky pleasaunces at Capistrano. It is early winter, the season of greenest fruitfulness. Oaks are massed superbly to the left. In the middle distance, to the right, oaks and sycamores in sedate array glimmer and beckon. A sunlit prospect painted with the easy mastery that comes from knowledge.'
Along the River Bed captures Wendt's love of 'the reveal', as the viewer's eye is drawn around a bend and into a sunlit clearing. The orange in the turning trees contrasts with the various tones of greens and shadows. Clouds dance above and give the composition a lively sense of immediacy and freshness.
Collectors often choose this landscape image when searching for landscape oil painting that feels substantial rather than decorative or disposable.
Materials matter for refined wall decor. That is why this piece is built on artist-grade canvas with lightfast oil colors, applied by hand rather than output from a printer, and sealed for long-term display.
Style it over a fireplace, behind a reading chair, or along a staircase. Wherever it goes, this refined oil painting wall decor adds the layered color that only a hand painted canvas provides.
Browse our William Wendt Paintings selection for related landscape canvases, or commission this landscape image in a custom size. Every order is a hand painted oil painting, never a printed poster.
| Size | Price |
|---|---|
| 20 X 24 in | $47.98 |
| 24 X 36 in | $77.98 |
| 30 X 40 in | $104.48 |
| 36 X 48 in | $149.48 |
| 48 X 72 in | $291.98 |
The sizes shown are the reproduction canvas sizes we paint to order. The dimensions given in a work's description refer to the original artwork and will differ from the sizes offered here. Not sure? Read the size guide or e-mail us.
Free on orders over $60; a flat $5 below that. Dispatched in 1–2 business days; 30 days to send it back. Full policy.
Every canvas is painted by hand in oils on artist-grade stretched canvas, with an extra blank border left for framing. How to care for your painting.
Measurements are on the size guide, or e-mail [email protected] and we reply within one business day.
