Attributed Francis Augustus Silva (1835 - 1886) American. Watercolor on Paper. Measure 7 1/2"in H x 9 1/2"in W and 12"in H x 14"in W with frame. Francis Augustus Silva was a Luminist painter of the "second generation" of Hudson River School painters. He probably had no formal training, but he was apprenticed to a sign painter and went on to paint decorative and landscape panels for stagecoaches and fire wagons. In 1868 he began a career as an artist after his marriage, exhibiting at the National Academy of Design and the Brooklyn Art Association. His primary interest was in marine and coastal scenes, and he traveled extensively along the Northeast coast, particularly to Cape Ann in Massachusetts and Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, as well as along the Hudson River and along the New Jersey shore. His carefully constructed compositions are characterized by their sense of tranquility and even wistfulness, along with a fastidiously rendered receding perspective shared by colleagues Fitz Henry Lane and Martin Johnson Heade. His compositions are carefully constructed, leading the viewer's eye to the far distance, often via the device of a lone figure in a sailboat situated in the canvas foreground. His paintings are known for their sense of tranquility and their poetic and nostalgic nature. Silva especially liked to portray the intense light effects of sunrise and sunset, using vibrant shades of pinks, oranges, and yellows.