James M. Hart (1828-1901), British-American
Lake Glenida (Village Outskirts), around 1863
OIL ON CANVAS, MOUNTED ON MASONITE, 20 x 34 inches
Gift of Mrs. Theodora Willard Best

This view toward the historic town of Carmel, located in upstate New York near the border of Connecticut, looks along the water's edge of Lake Gleneida (to use its current spelling). Such pastoral scenes fit urban Americans' idyllic notions of the simplicity of rural life. Thomas Jefferson's vision of the yeoman farmer as America's model citizen lingered in the popular imagination. Also influenced by French and British painters creating similar depictions of peasant life for urban patrons in Europe during mid-century, American artists such as Hart found a ready market for such romantic scenes of country life.