White Mountain art - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

White Mountain art is the body of work created during the 19th century by over four hundred artists who painted landscape scenes of the White Mountains of New Hampshire

White Mountains (New Hampshire)

The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. Part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England...

in order to promote the region and, consequently, sell their works of art.

In the early part of the 19th century, artists ventured to the White Mountains of New Hampshire to sketch and paint. Many of the first artists were attracted to the region because of the 1826 tragedy

Tragedy (event)

A tragedy is an event in which one or more losses, usually of human life, occurs that is viewed as mournful. Such an event is said to be tragic....

of the Willey family, in which nine people lost their lives in a mudslide. These early works portrayed a dramatic and untamed mountain wilderness. Dr. Robert McGrath describes a Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century...

(1801–1848) painting titled Distant View of the Slide that Destroyed the Willey Family thus: "... an array of broken stumps and errant rocks, together with a gathering storm, suggest the wildness of the site while evoking an appropriate ambient of darkness and desolation". The images stirred the imagination of Americans, primarily from the large cites of the northeast, who traveled to the White Mountains to view the scenes for themselves. Others soon followed: innkeepers, writers, scientists, and more artists. The White Mountains became a major attraction for tourists from the New England states and beyond. The circulation of paintings and prints depicting the area enabled those who could not visit, because of lack of means, distance, or other circumstance, to appreciate its beauty.

Transportation improved to the region; inns and later grand resort hotels, complete with artists in residence, were built. Benjamin Champney

Benjamin Champney

Benjamin Champney was a painter whose name has become synonymous with White Mountain art of the 19th century. He began his training as a lithographer under celebrated marine artist Fitz Henry Lane at Pendleton's Lithography shop in Boston...

(1817–1907), one of the early artists, popularized the Conway Valley

Conway, New Hampshire

Conway is a town, the largest in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 10,115 at the 2010 census. Parts of the White Mountain National Forest are in the west and north. Cathedral Ledge and Echo Lake State Park are in the west...

. Other artists preferred the Franconia area

Franconia Notch

Franconia Notch is a major mountain pass through the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Dominated by Cannon Mountain, it lies principally within Franconia Notch State Park and is traversed by the Franconia Notch Parkway Franconia Notch (el. 1950 ft. / 590 m.) is a major mountain pass through...

, and yet still others ventured to Gorham

Gorham, New Hampshire

Gorham is a town in Coos County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,848 at the 2010 census. Gorham is located in the White Mountains, and parts of the White Mountain National Forest are in the south and northwest. Moose Brook State Park is in the west. The town is crossed by the...

, Shelburne

Shelburne, New Hampshire

Shelburne is a town in Coos County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 372 at the 2010 census. It is located in the White Mountains, and part of the White Mountain National Forest is in the south. Shelburne is home to Leadmine State Forest...

and the communities of the north. Although these artists all painted similar scenes within the White Mountains, each artist had an individual style that characterized his work. These landscape paintings in the Hudson River

Hudson River school

The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...

tradition, however, eventually fell out of favor with the public, and, by the turn of the century, the era for White Mountain art had ended.

The Willey tragedy

On August 28, 1826, torrential rains in the White Mountains caused a mudslide on Mount Willey

Mount Willey

Mount Willey is a mountain located in Grafton County, New Hampshire. The mountain is named after Samuel Willey, Jr. and his family, who in 1825 moved into a house in Crawford Notch...

. The Willey couple, with their five children, lived in a small house in the notch between Mounts Willey and Webster

Mount Webster

Mount Webster is a mountain located on the border between Coos County and Carroll County, New Hampshire. The mountain, formerly called Notch Mountain, is named after Daniel Webster , and is the southwesternmost of the Presidential Range of the White Mountains...

. They evacuated their home with the help of two hired men to escape the landslide, but all seven Willeys and the two hired men died in the avalanche. The Willey home was left standing. Rescuers later found an open Bible on a table in the home, indicating that the family retreated in haste.

The news of the Willey tragedy quickly spread across the nation. During the ensuing years, it would become the subject of literature, drawings, local histories, scientific journals, and paintings. One such example is the painting by Thomas Hill

Thomas Hill (painter)

Thomas Hill was an American artist of the 19th century. He produced many fine paintings of the California landscape, in particular of the Yosemite Valley, as well as the White Mountains of New Hampshire.-Biography:...

(1829–1908) titled Crawford Notch, the site of the Willey tragedy before the slide. The Willey disaster started a new awareness of the American landscape and the raw wilderness of the White Mountains.
This allure — tragedy and untamed nature — was a powerful draw for the early artists who painted in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Thomas Cole (1801–1848) in his diary entry of October 6, 1828, wrote, "The site of the Willey House, with its little patch of green in the gloomy desolation, very naturally recalled to mind the horrors of the night when the whole family perished beneath an avalanche of rocks and earth."

The incident provided the basis for an 1835 story by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...

titled "The Ambitious Guest

The Ambitious Guest

"The Ambitious Guest" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. First published in The New-England Magazine in June of 1835, it is better known for its publication in the second volume of Twice-Told Tales in 1841.- Plot :...

Early artists

In 1827, one of the first artists to sketch in the White Mountains was Thomas Cole, founder of the style of painting that would later be called the Hudson River School

Hudson River school

The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...

. Cole’s 1839 work, A View of the Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains, is perhaps the best and finest examples of early 19th-century White Mountain art. Catherine Campbell, in her reference New Hampshire Scenery, stated, "The Notch of the White Mountains [is a] magistral work, one of the undisputed masterpieces of White Mountain painting." Two other early White Mountain painters were the Massachusetts artists Alvan Fisher

Alvan Fisher

Alvan Fisher was one of the United States's pioneers in landscape painting and genre works.-Early years:...

(1792–1863) and Thomas Doughty

Thomas Doughty (artist)

Thomas Doughty was an American artist of the Hudson River School.Born in Philadelphia, Thomas Doughty was the first American artist to work exclusively as a landscapist and was successful both for his skill and the fact that Americans were turning their interest to landscape...

(1793–1856). The works of these early artists depicted dramatic landscapes and man’s relative insignificance compared to nature. "Fisher's turbulent view [of The Notch] also emphasizes the power of the mountains and the fragility of human enterprise." These paintings helped to promote the region at a time when the White Mountains were an unknown wilderness.

Beginning in the 1830s, the landscape painters of the Hudson River School "sought to define America and what it was to be an American. Artists of that time saw themselves as scientists making documents that expressed Christian truths and democratic ideals."

In 1851, John Frederick Kensett

John Frederick Kensett

John Frederick Kensett was an American artist and engraver. He attended school at Cheshire Academy, and studied engraving with his immigrant father, Thomas Kensett, and later with his uncle, Alfred Dagget...

(1816–1872) produced a large canvas, 40 x 60 inches, of Mount Washington

Mount Washington (New Hampshire)

Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at , famous for dangerously erratic weather. For 76 years, a weather observatory on the summit held the record for the highest wind gust directly measured at the Earth's surface, , on the afternoon of April 12, 1934...

that has become one of the best and finest later examples of White Mountain art. Barbara J. MacAdam, the Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of America Art at the Hood Museum of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

, has written: "John Frederick Kensett first made the scene famous through his monumental landscape, Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway ... Kensett's image became the single most effective mid-nineteenth-century advertisement for the scenic charms of the White Mountains and of North Conway in particular. Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway, purchased by the American Art Union

American Art-Union

The American Art-Union was a subscription-based organization founded in 1840, whose goal was to enlighten and educate an American public to a national art, while providing a support system for the viewing and sales of art “executed by rtists in the United States or by American rtists abroad." The...

, was made into a print by the engraver James Smillie (1833–1909) and distributed to over 13,000 Art Union subscribers throughout the country. Many artists painted copies of this same scene from the print, and Currier and Ives

Currier and Ives

Currier and Ives was a successful American printmaking firm headed by Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives . Based in New York City from 1834–1907, the prolific firm produced prints from paintings by fine artists as black and white lithographs that were hand colored...

published a lithograph of this view in 1860. Kensett’s painting is another example of a work of art that helped to popularize the region. Catherine Campbell described the painting as "canonical among White Mountain paintings" and "the best known landscape view of the era."

Because of the proximity of Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

to the White Mountains, artists from that city became the predominate visitors and artists to capture White Mountain views. Beginning with Benjamin Champney in 1838, and continuing through the 19th century, his friends and fellow artists traveled to the mountains. In 1854 these artists, including Francis Seth Frost (1825–1902), Alfred T. Ordway (1821–1897), Samuel Lancaster Gerry (1813–1891), and Samuel W. Griggs (1827–1898), were the founding members of the Boston Art Club

Boston Art Club

The Boston Art Club, Boston, Massachusetts, for nearly 157 years, serves as a nexus for Members and non Members to access the world of Fine Art. Currently more than 250 members maintain an active environment for the support and promotion of these works....

, which for many years became a venue to view White Mountain paintings.

Travel to the region

Early coach travel to the White Mountains was time-consuming. Before the advent of rail travel, a stagecoach ride from Portland, Maine

Portland, Maine

Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...

to Conway, New Hampshire

Conway, New Hampshire

, a distance of fifty miles, took a day. When the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad

St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad

The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad , known as St-Laurent et Atlantique Quebec in Canada, is a short line railroad operating between Portland, Maine on the Atlantic Ocean and Montreal, Quebec on the St. Lawrence River. It crosses the Canada-U.S...

completed its route from Portland

Portland, Maine

Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...

to Gorham

Gorham, New Hampshire

in 1851, tourists and artists could travel in relative comfort to the White Mountains, and were within eight miles of Mount Washington and the Glen House.

Although rail lines to North Conway

North Conway, New Hampshire

North Conway is a census-designated place in eastern Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,349 at the 2010 census. A year-round resort area, North Conway is the largest village within the town of Conway, which is bounded on the east by the Maine state line. The White...

were not complete until the early 1870s, an innkeeper in the area, Samuel Thompson, established coach service from Conway to North Conway and, subsequently, to Pinkham Notch

Pinkham Notch

Pinkham Notch is a mountain pass in the White Mountains of north-central New Hampshire, United States. The notch is a result of extensive erosion by the Laurentide ice sheet during the Wisconsinian ice age. Pinkham Notch was eroded into a glacial U-shaped valley whose walls are formed by the...

. Thompson is also credited with enticing artists to North Conway in order to promote the region. In the early 1850s, Thompson convinced a young artist, Benjamin Champney, to visit North Conway.

Benjamin Champney and the allure of North Conway

Benjamin Champney, a New Hampshire native, made his first trip to the White Mountains in 1838 on a summer excursion. As an emerging artist in the second half of the 19th century, Champney’s style was influenced by the Hudson River School

Hudson River school

The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...

, yet he developed a unique style of his own. Dr. Donald D. Keyes has stated, "Champney witnessed major artistic changes; yet his art remained solidly in the camp of the Romantic artists of his youth."
In 1853, Champney bought a home in North Conway and spent the rest of his life painting in the greater Conway

Conway, New Hampshire

area. He attracted other artists to the region and opened his studio to them as well as to tourists. Champney, in his autobiography of 1900, wrote: "My studio has been the resort of many highly cultivated people from all parts of our country and even from foreign lands, and I have enjoyed much and learned much from the interchange of ideas with refined and intelligent minds." He also described the popularity of North Conway, "Thus every year brought fresh visitors to North Conway as the news of its attractions spread, until in 1853 and 1854 the meadows and the banks of the Saco were dotted all about with white umbrellas in great numbers."

Largely because of Champney’s promotion of the area, these artists traveled to North Conway in the summer to paint. The area was filled with artists painting en plein air

En plein air

En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school and Impressionism...

. By 1855, North Conway had become " … the pet valley of our landscape painters. There are always a dozen or more here during the sketching season, and you can hardly glance over the meadows, in any direction, without seeing one of their white umbrellas shining in the sun," thus echoing Champney's own words. By the 1850s, North Conway had arguably become the first artist colony in the United States. Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art....

(1836–1910) depicted these artists in his 1868 painting titled Artists Sketching in the White Mountains.

Later artists

In all, over four hundred artists are known to have painted White Mountain views during the 19th century. They came from the Boston area, Maine, Pennsylvania, and New York. Most of the Hudson River School

Hudson River school

The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...

painters worked in the White Mountains while maintaining studios in New York City, including such well-known artists as Sanford Robinson Gifford

Sanford Robinson Gifford

Sanford Robinson Gifford was an American landscape painter and one of the leading members of the Hudson River School...

(1823–1880) and Jasper Francis Cropsey

Jasper Francis Cropsey

Jasper Francis Cropsey was an important American landscape artist of the Hudson River School.-Biography:Cropsey was born on his father Jacob Rezeau Cropsey's farm in Rossville on Staten Island, New York, the oldest of eight children. As a young boy, Cropsey had recurring periods of poor health....

(1823–1900).

Most artists came to the White Mountains in the summer, but returned to their urban studios, or sometimes to warmer climates like Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, in the winter. Therefore, paintings of winter scenes are not common. A few artists, like Champney, Edward Hill

Edward Hill (painter)

Edward Hill was a prolific artist as well as a published poet, songwriter, and newspaper correspondent. His paintings include White Mountain landscapes, southern genre scenes, still lifes, portraits, American Indians, European attractions, and the scenery of the American West.-Early life:Hill...

(1843–1923), and Edward's brother, Thomas Hill, would sometimes paint these rarer winter scenes. Two examples of winter paintings, both illustrated in this article, are Thomas Hill's Mount Lafayette in Winter and Benjamin Champney's Moat Mountain from North Conway. Frank Henry Shapleigh (1842–1906) had a home in Jackson

Jackson, New Hampshire

Jackson is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 816 at the 2010 census. Jackson is an elegant resort area in the White Mountains. Parts of the White Mountain National Forest are in the west, north and east...

and was a prolific painter of New Hampshire scenes, both in summer and winter.

By mid-century, the later painters changed their style from the idealized views of the earlier painters to more literal views of the mountains. Dr. Donald D. Keyes has written, " ... the aesthetics of the time [1840s and 1850s] were also changing, with less emphasis placed on the Sublime and more on fact — 'realism'." These more literal views were sought after by tourists as mementos of their travels in an era before photography. As an example of how literal these depictions were, see the composite image where a painting by George Albert Frost

George Albert Frost

George Albert Frost was an American artist of the 19th century. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and had a studio in North Cambridge, Massachusetts for several years. He studied under Nicolas de Keyser at the Academy Royale de Belgique in Antwerp...

(1843–1907) of Franconia Notch

Franconia Notch

painted in 1883 is compared to a photograph of the scene in 2004.

Grand resort hotels

It was during the 1860s that many of the region's resort hotels were built and became popular as major summer destinations for affluent city dwellers from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. By 1865, White Mountain tourism was "so immense that it tasks to the utmost the capacity of all the hotels and boarding houses". During the latter half of the 19th century, many of the artists took up residence at one of these grand hotels and became known as artists-in-residence. This arrangement had advantages for both the artist and the hotel. Once established, the artists invited guests to their studios to view their works. The guests purchased original works to bring home as a remembrance of the White Mountains. The hotel benefited by having another attraction to keep guests for an extended stay.

Two well-known artists-in-residence were Edward Hill and Frank Henry Shapleigh. Hill worked at the Profile House in Franconia Notch for fifteen years, from 1877 to 1892, and spent shorter stays at the Waumbek Hotel and the Glen House. Frank Shapleigh was the artist-in-residence at the Crawford House

Crawford House Artist's Studio

Crawford House Artist's Studio is a historic studio building in Carroll, New Hampshire.It was built in 1880 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985....

in Crawford Notch

Crawford Notch

Crawford Notch is the steep and narrow gorge of the Saco River in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, located almost entirely within the town of Hart's Location...

for sixteen years, from 1877 to 1893.

Working in North Conway, Franconia, and points north

North Conway, by virtue of its unique location in the southern Mount Washington Valley, was a gathering place for many of the artists. The artist Asher B. Durand (1796–1886), in a letter to The Crayon in 1855, described the appeal of North Conway:

"Mount Washington, the leading feature of the scene, ... rises in all his majesty, and with his contemporary patriots, Adams, Jefferson, Munroe [sic], bounds the view at the North. On either hand, subordinate mountains and ledges slope, or abruptly descend to the fertile plain that borders the Saco, stretching many miles southward, rich in varying tints of green fields and meadows, and beautifully interspersed with groves and scattered trees of graceful form and deepest verdure ... where every possible shade of green is harmoniously mingled."

A favorite spot in North Conway for viewing and painting Mount Washington was Sunset Hill. Typical for this view, in 1858 Champney painted Mount Washington from Sunset Hill that looks down on his own house and backyard, and out across North Conway’s Intervale. North Conway afforded vantage points for other frequently painted views — Moat Mountain

North Moat Mountain

North Moat Mountain is a mountain located in Carroll County, New Hampshire.North Moat is flanked to the south by Middle Moat Mountain, and to the west by Big Attitash Mountain....

, Mount Kearsarge

Mount Kearsarge (Carroll County, New Hampshire)

Mount Kearsarge is a mountain located about 4 miles northeast of North Conway, Carroll County, New Hampshire. The mountain's Abenaki name is Pequawket...

, and Mount Chocorua

Mount Chocorua

Mount Chocorua is a summit in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. At an elevation of it is the easternmost peak of the Sandwich Range....

. North Conway was also a short distance from two of the three notches of the White Mountains: Pinkham Notch

Pinkham Notch

, and Crawford Notch

Crawford Notch

Crawford Notch is the steep and narrow gorge of the Saco River in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, located almost entirely within the town of Hart's Location...

.

Many artists also traveled to the third notch, Franconia Notch

Franconia Notch

, to paint. A rivalry developed between the Franconia

Franconia, New Hampshire

Franconia is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,104 at the 2010 census. Set in the White Mountains, Franconia is home to the northern half of Franconia Notch State Park. Parts of the White Mountain National Forest are in the eastern and southern portions...

artists and the North Conway artists. Each faction believed that their location had the most beautiful view of the mountains. Those who preferred Franconia felt that North Conway, as early as 1857, had been overrun by tourists. Barbara J. MacAdam, in her essay "A Proper Distance from the Hills," stated: "To meet this growing demand [for tourists], railroad lines were extended and new hotels constructed on a grand scale. In the process, those qualities that had drawn artists to North Conway in the first place became endangered." Daniel Huntington

Daniel Huntington

Daniel Huntington , American artist, was born in New York City, New York, the son of Benjamin Huntington, Jr. and Faith Trumbull Huntington; his paternal grandfather was Benjamin Huntington, delegate at the Second Continental Congress and First U.S. Representative from Connecticut...

(1816–1906), writing from West Campton

Campton, New Hampshire

Campton is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,333 at the 2010 census. Campton, which includes the villages of Blair, Campton Hollow, Lower Campton and West Campton, is home to Blair State Forest and Livermore Falls State Forest...

in 1855, described the appeal of the Franconia region to the landscape painter.

"I find it indeed a very agreeable and desirable place for landscape study ... The Pemigewasset river which winds through the valley, is somewhat like the Saco in the vicinity of Conway. Its banks are mostly of sand, occasionally varied by broken masses of rock ... The valley is narrower than that of the Saco, and is quite different in the character of its half-wooded hill-sides."

In the Franconia region, artists painted Mount Lafayette, Franconia Notch, Eagle Cliff, and New Hampshire's well-known icon, the Old Man of the Mountain

Old Man of the Mountain

The Old Man of the Mountain, also known as the Great Stone Face or the Profile, was a series of five granite cliff ledges on Cannon Mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA that, when viewed from the north, appeared to be the jagged profile of a face. The rock formation was above...

. Edward Hill, George McConnell, and Samuel Lancaster Gerry

Samuel Lancaster Gerry

Samuel Lancaster Gerry was an artist in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. He painted portraits, and also landscapes of the White Mountains and other locales in New England. He was affiliated with the New England Art Union, and the Boston Artists' Association. In 1857 he co-founded the Boston Art...

all painted the subject of the Old Man. Fewer artists worked in the area north of the Presidential Range

Presidential Range

The Presidential Range is a mountain range located in the White Mountains of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Containing the highest peaks of the Whites, its most notable summits are named for American Presidents, followed by prominent public figures of the 18th and 19th centuries.Mt...

. Those who did painted less well-known scenes from Shelburne

Shelburne, New Hampshire

, Gorham

Gorham, New Hampshire

, and Jefferson

Jefferson, New Hampshire

Jefferson is a town in Coos County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,107 at the 2010 census. It is home to parts of the White Mountain National Forest in the south and northeast and to two theme parks: Santa's Village and...

. These locations were strategically located along train or coach routes from Gorham and Franconia. The Northern Presidentials, pictured above, is one such example of a painting of the Presidential Range from the north.

Characteristics of the artists

Each White Mountain artist had certain characteristics that would distinguish his work from that of other artists. These characteristics may be more suggestive of an artist than even his signature, since signatures are sometimes forged.

Benjamin Champney was a master at painting water and is known for warm autumn colors. William F. Paskell (1866–1951), in his later style, used broad brushstrokes and bright colors to create an impressionistic feeling. George McConnell (1852–1929) was known for the velvety pastel look of his paintings. Edward Hill

Edward Hill (painter)

often created a canopy-like depiction of trees to frame and accentuate the focus of a painting, a technique that gave many of his works a feeling of intimacy and solitude. Many of the works of Samuel Lancaster Gerry

Samuel Lancaster Gerry

(1813–1891) included dogs, people on horseback, and women and men in red clothing. Francis Seth Frost

Francis Seth Frost

Francis Seth Frost or F.S. Frost was a painter, photographer, and businessman specializing in artists' materials. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, he travelled widely in the United States. Friends included Albert Bierstadt....

(1825–1902) was known to use small figures, wispy clouds, and an oval format. Alfred Thompson Bricher

Alfred Thompson Bricher

Alfred Thompson Bricher was a painter associated with White Mountain art and the Hudson River School.-Life and work:...

(1837–1908) was known for his quiet, calm water. Sylvester Phelps Hodgdon

Sylvester Phelps Hodgdon

Sylvester Phelps Hodgdon was a prolific American painter.Hodgdon lived and studied in the Boston area. He began as a portrait painter but by 1864 he was painting and exhibiting landscapes at The National Academy of Design....

(1830–1906) painted at the extremes of the day – sunrise and sunset scenes – and often in Franconia Notch. John White Allen Scott (1815–1907) frequently painted passing storm clouds in his skies. Frank Henry Shapleigh had his own primitive style and used the same "props" over and over again in his paintings. He is known for painting landscapes as seen from the inside of a house or barn looking out through an open door or window. Inside the room would be such props as a ladder back chair, a cat, a basket, a straw hat, a broom, and/or a tall clock.

Characteristics are illustrated for these representative artists in the image gallery below.

End of an era

The scenes these artists painted became American icons, certainly to the people of New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

. As tourists took these White Mountain paintings home, they were widely dispensed throughout the country. Today, these paintings are discovered as far away as California.

By the latter part of the 19th century, landscape images, such as Mount Washington

Mount Washington (New Hampshire)

, had lost their appeal with the public. Newer images, such as those of the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

, were outweighing interest in the White Mountains. Also, landscapes in the Hudson River

Hudson River school

The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...

style were "usurped both by new artistic ideas and by the social and technological changes that were rapidly occurring in the region and throughout the country." By the end of the 19th century, these factors, and the advent of photography, led to the gradual decline of White Mountain landscape painting. Many of these paintings, however, are preserved in both private collections and public institutions. Some of these paintings can be seen in New Hampshire at the New Hampshire Historical Society

New Hampshire Historical Society

The New Hampshire Historical Society was founded in 1823. Its mission is to educate a diverse public about the significance of New Hampshire's past and its relationship to our lives today.-Introduction:...

in Concord

Concord, New Hampshire

The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....

, the Currier Museum of Art

Currier Museum of Art

The Currier Museum of Art is an art museum in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA, featuring European and American paintings, decorative arts, photographs and sculpture. The permanent collection includes works by Picasso, Matisse, Monet, O'Keeffe, Calder, Scheier and Goldsmith, John Singer Sargent,...

in Manchester

Manchester, New Hampshire

Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...

, and at the Hood Museum of Art

Hood Museum of Art

The Hood Museum of Art is a museum in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Dating back to 1772, the museum is owned and operated by Dartmouth College and is connected to the Hopkins Center for the Arts. The current building, designed by Charles Willard Moore and Chad Flloyd, opened in the fall of 1985. It...

in Hanover

Hanover, New Hampshire

Hanover is a town along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 11,260 at the 2010 census. CNN and Money magazine rated Hanover the sixth best place to live in America in 2011, and the second best in 2007....

Notable White Mountain artists

Albert Bierstadt
Albert Bierstadt
Albert Bierstadt was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. In obtaining the subject matter for these works, Bierstadt joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion...
Alfred Thompson Bricher
Alfred Thompson Bricher
Alfred Thompson Bricher was a painter associated with White Mountain art and the Hudson River School.-Life and work:...
George Loring Brown
George Loring Brown
George Loring Brown was an American landscape painter. He was born in Boston and first studied wood engraving under Alonzo Hartwell and worked as an illustrator. He studied painting with Washington Allston, but soon went to Europe, residing principally in Italy for years...
Benjamin Champney
Benjamin Champney
Benjamin Champney was a painter whose name has become synonymous with White Mountain art of the 19th century. He began his training as a lithographer under celebrated marine artist Fitz Henry Lane at Pendleton's Lithography shop in Boston...
Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century...
Jasper Francis Cropsey
Jasper Francis Cropsey
Jasper Francis Cropsey was an important American landscape artist of the Hudson River School.-Biography:Cropsey was born on his father Jacob Rezeau Cropsey's farm in Rossville on Staten Island, New York, the oldest of eight children. As a young boy, Cropsey had recurring periods of poor health....
Thomas Doughty
Thomas Doughty (artist)
Thomas Doughty was an American artist of the Hudson River School.Born in Philadelphia, Thomas Doughty was the first American artist to work exclusively as a landscapist and was successful both for his skill and the fact that Americans were turning their interest to landscape...
Asher B. Durand
Alvan Fisher
Alvan Fisher
Alvan Fisher was one of the United States's pioneers in landscape painting and genre works.-Early years:...
Francis Seth Frost
Francis Seth Frost
Francis Seth Frost or F.S. Frost was a painter, photographer, and businessman specializing in artists' materials. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, he travelled widely in the United States. Friends included Albert Bierstadt....
George Albert Frost
George Albert Frost
George Albert Frost was an American artist of the 19th century. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and had a studio in North Cambridge, Massachusetts for several years. He studied under Nicolas de Keyser at the Academy Royale de Belgique in Antwerp...

Samuel Lancaster Gerry
Samuel Lancaster Gerry
Samuel Lancaster Gerry was an artist in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. He painted portraits, and also landscapes of the White Mountains and other locales in New England. He was affiliated with the New England Art Union, and the Boston Artists' Association. In 1857 he co-founded the Boston Art...
Sanford Robinson Gifford
Sanford Robinson Gifford
Sanford Robinson Gifford was an American landscape painter and one of the leading members of the Hudson River School...
Samuel W. Griggs
William Hart
William Hart (painter)
William Hart , was a Scottish-born American landscape and cattle painter, and Hudson River School artist. His younger brother, James McDougal Hart, was also a Hudson River School artist, and the two painted similar subjects...
Edward Hill
Edward Hill (painter)
Edward Hill was a prolific artist as well as a published poet, songwriter, and newspaper correspondent. His paintings include White Mountain landscapes, southern genre scenes, still lifes, portraits, American Indians, European attractions, and the scenery of the American West.-Early life:Hill...
Thomas Hill
Thomas Hill (painter)
Thomas Hill was an American artist of the 19th century. He produced many fine paintings of the California landscape, in particular of the Yosemite Valley, as well as the White Mountains of New Hampshire.-Biography:...
Winslow Homer
Winslow Homer
Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art....
Sylvester Phelps Hodgdon
Sylvester Phelps Hodgdon
Sylvester Phelps Hodgdon was a prolific American painter.Hodgdon lived and studied in the Boston area. He began as a portrait painter but by 1864 he was painting and exhibiting landscapes at The National Academy of Design....
George Inness
George Inness
George Inness was an American landscape painter; born in Newburgh, New York; died at Bridge of Allan in Scotland. His work was influenced, in turn, by that of the old masters, the Hudson River school, the Barbizon school, and, finally, by the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritualism...
David Johnson
David Johnson (American artist)
David Johnson was a member of the second generation of Hudson River School painters.He was born in New York City, New York. He studied for two years at the antique school of the National Academy of Design. He also studied briefly with the Hudson River artist Jasper Francis Cropsey...
John Frederick Kensett
John Frederick Kensett
John Frederick Kensett was an American artist and engraver. He attended school at Cheshire Academy, and studied engraving with his immigrant father, Thomas Kensett, and later with his uncle, Alfred Dagget...

Edmund Darch Lewis
Edmund Darch Lewis
Edmund Darch Lewis was an American landscape painter known for his prolific style and marine oils and watercolors. Lewis was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a well-to-do family. He started training at age 15 with German-born Paul Weber of the Hudson River School...
Alfred T. Ordway
William F. Paskell
William Trost Richards
William Trost Richards
William Trost Richards was an American landscape artist associated with both the Hudson River School and the American Pre-Raphaelite movement.-Biography:...
Horace Wolcott Robbins
John White Allen Scott
Aaron Draper Shattuck
Aaron Draper Shattuck
Aaron Draper Shattuck was an American painter of the White Mountain School. He was born in Francestown, New Hampshire. A second-generation artist affiliated with the Hudson River School, Shattuck differed from most of his contemporaries in that he never studied abroad, and appears to have spent...
Frank Henry Shapleigh
Russell Smith
William Louis Sonntag
William Louis Sonntag, Sr.
William Louis Sonntag, Sr. was an American landscape painter. Born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1822, he traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio at the age of 21 and perfected his technique. Becoming an established and highly regarded landscape artist, he began making trips to Florence, Italy in 1853...

External links

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The Willey tragedy

Early artists

Travel to the region

Benjamin Champney and the allure of North Conway

Later artists

Grand resort hotels

Working in North Conway, Franconia, and points north

Characteristics of the artists

End of an era

Notable White Mountain artists

Further reading

External links