Elliott Daingerfield (1859–1932)
Sunset Glory
c. 1915
Oil on canvas
27½ x 33¾ inches
Museum purchase; 1990.014

Elliott Daingerfield's Sunset Glory depicts the landscape of Blowing Rock, North Carolina where he maintained a studio. The painting focuses on subtle harmonies of color and light to create a mood rather than on portraying a recognizable landscape.

The growing materialism of early twentieth-century American society and the premature death of his wife during childbirth caused Daingerfield to realize a greater level of introspection and speculation about faith and the afterlife. In Sunset Glory, his almost unrecognizable rendering of the landscape of Blowing Rock transcends the earthly world, giving preference to his own emotional interpretation of the place.