The Art Gallery at the Athenaeum contains one of America’s unique collections of 19th century American paintings. Each week we will feature a different work on this page. We hope educators will use this link as a tool to enrich their art curriculum. Vermonters and other citizens throughout the nation can now visit our gallery in this new, intimate, and informative way.
The text describing each painting was written by Mark D. Mitchell, Assistant Curator of Nineteenth-Century Art at the National Academy Museum. The digital images were prepared by Robert Jenks of Jenks Studio of Photography in St. Johnsbury, VT.
Please note that the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum prohibits the use of images from its collection in public exhibition, broadcast, electronic reproduction or publication in any form without prior written permission from the institution. If you would like to reproduce any of the Art Gallery images in any form, contact Irwin Gelber at 748-8291, extension 307.
Jervis McEntee (1828-1891), American
The Woods ofAsshockan, Catskills, 1871
OIL ON CANVAS, 2o x 36 inches
Gift of Horace Fairbanks
Jervis McEntee's portrayals of American autumn are distinguished from those of his contemporaries by their air of contemplative melancholy. Instead of the saturated reds, oranges, and yellows that make New England's fall foliage famous around the world and that artists such as Jasper Cropsey made their special study, McEntee appreciated the "graver moods" and more subtle transitions of color at the season's end. Ironically, the artist recalled the fall of 1871, when he painted this work, as one of the happiest times of his life, spent exploring the landscape near Ashokan (to use the current spelling) in the foothills of New York's Catskill Mountains, not far from his home.
The early 18705 was a period of transition in McEntee's career, as he moved from a crisp, sharp-edged mode of realism to looser brushwork and a more tonal aesthetic, Fairbanks purchased The Woods of Assbockan, Catskills directly from the artist in February 1872, shortly after its completion. The artist's pride in the composition is apparent, as he later borrowed it back for inclusion in the 1878 Universal Exposition in Paris to represent his finest work.
Archive of works previously highlighted:
A. Wordsworth Thompson - Waiting for the Steamboat at Menaggio |
|
Sanford R. Gifford - The View from South Mountain in the Catskills |
|