Quarry

Despite the Impressionist color and light that give a sense of plein-air immediacy to this work, "Quarry" was executed in the studio from a preparatory drawing and notes. The carefully constructed composition, with horizontal bands of sky, land, and water, is overlaid with a unifying surface of small, delicate brush strokes, characteristic of Garber's work. The scene depicted is on the Delaware River across from Limeport, Pennsylvania, not far from New Hope, where many of Pennsylvania's Impressionist painters gathered in the early decades of the twentieth century. Garber, one of the leading members of the group, was trained at the Pennsylvania Academy by Thomas Anshutz and shared with his teacher an understanding of traditional realist drawing and a love of bright pastel colors and sunlit landscapes, here showing the scarred landscape of industrial America.