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An Indian Summer Morning in the White Mountains
1857oil on canvas
39 1/4 in. x 61 1/4 in. (99.7 cm x 155.58 cm)
Currier Funds, 1962.17
Jasper Francis Cropsey
American
1823–1900
ON VIEW
(For biographical information on Jasper Francis Cropsey, see entry under Cropsey, Winter Landscape, North Conway, N.H., 2002.20.20)
The painting An Indian Summer Morning in the White Mountains established Jasper Cropsey's reputation in the English-speaking art community and was his rehearsal for what would be the greatest success of his career. It was made in England, where Cropsey had settled in 1856, and, although probably based on sketches done on an earlier tour of the White Mountains, it was clearly a studio picture, a composite of several sites. Cropsey first displayed the painting at the spring 1857 exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in London; in the catalogue, the picture's description was accompanied by lines from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline ("Filled was the air with a dreamy, magical light…"). The work was the English public's first exposure to Cropsey's autumnal palette (which critic John Ruskin at first regarded with suspicion but then came to praise for its "radiant truth"). It was also one of the first large-scale, dramatic views of the American wilderness to be shown abroad, and the British were enthralled. Critics called Cropsey an "excellent American painter" and hailed the picture's brilliant color, crisp detail, and especially the water, which was seen as particularly skillfully rendered. J.S. Morgan, the expatriate financier and collector, bought the painting a few months later for one thousand dollars, the highest price Cropsey had yet received. This success emboldened the artist to paint another wilderness view, similarly composed and colored but bucolic rather than wild, and to present it not in a gallery but as a "Great Picture" in his own studio. Autumn-On the Hudson River (1860, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) enjoyed an extraordinary reception, earning Cropsey a space in the art section of the prestigious London International Exhibition of 1862 and an audience with Queen Victoria.
In An Indian Summer Morning in the White Mountains, Cropsey depicts the White Mountains as a primeval paradise. The rising sun illuminates a varied prospect: there is a snow-capped, craggy peak, rolling hills ablaze with autumn hues, and a briskly running mountain stream emptying into a deep, still pool that reflects the shapes and colors of the surrounding landscape. There is no sign of human presence; a few deer drink placidly from the stream at right while others nestle in the grass at left. The elemental qualities of the scene are underscored by the swirling mists and the deep shadows cast by the low sun: this is an untouched, wild, sublime place, mysterious and, for the English public, decidedly exotic.
It may well be the public for which he intended this picture that caused Cropsey to forego the prevailing characterization of the White Mountains as a benign and pleasing setting for human activity. While Thomas Cole in the 1820s had shown the area as a savagely beautiful and forbidding place, the coming of the railroad to the region caused his interpretation of the White Mountains to be supplanted by a bucolic vision, popularized by John F. Kensett (1816-1872) and others. Cropsey's return to Cole's imagery, to the White Mountains as the "forest primeval," clearly meshed with his British audience's notion of the New World. His work remained extremely sought after for the rest of his stay in England, and upon his return to the United States in 1863, he found that his celebrity and the market for his pictures had preceded him.
CT
REFERENCES
"A White Mountains Landscape by Jasper Francis Cropsey." Currier Gallery of Art Bulletin, February 1963, pp. 1-6.
Donald D. Keyes et al. The White Mountains: Place and Perception. Ex. cat. University Art Galleries, University of New Hampshire, Durham, 1980. Pp. 46, 88-89.
William S. Talbot. Jasper Francis Cropsey 1823-1900. Ex. cat. National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1980. Pp. 82-83.
The painting An Indian Summer Morning in the White Mountains established Jasper Cropsey's reputation in the English-speaking art community and was his rehearsal for what would be the greatest success of his career. It was made in England, where Cropsey had settled in 1856, and, although probably based on sketches done on an earlier tour of the White Mountains, it was clearly a studio picture, a composite of several sites. Cropsey first displayed the painting at the spring 1857 exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in London; in the catalogue, the picture's description was accompanied by lines from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline ("Filled was the air with a dreamy, magical light…"). The work was the English public's first exposure to Cropsey's autumnal palette (which critic John Ruskin at first regarded with suspicion but then came to praise for its "radiant truth"). It was also one of the first large-scale, dramatic views of the American wilderness to be shown abroad, and the British were enthralled. Critics called Cropsey an "excellent American painter" and hailed the picture's brilliant color, crisp detail, and especially the water, which was seen as particularly skillfully rendered. J.S. Morgan, the expatriate financier and collector, bought the painting a few months later for one thousand dollars, the highest price Cropsey had yet received. This success emboldened the artist to paint another wilderness view, similarly composed and colored but bucolic rather than wild, and to present it not in a gallery but as a "Great Picture" in his own studio. Autumn-On the Hudson River (1860, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) enjoyed an extraordinary reception, earning Cropsey a space in the art section of the prestigious London International Exhibition of 1862 and an audience with Queen Victoria.
In An Indian Summer Morning in the White Mountains, Cropsey depicts the White Mountains as a primeval paradise. The rising sun illuminates a varied prospect: there is a snow-capped, craggy peak, rolling hills ablaze with autumn hues, and a briskly running mountain stream emptying into a deep, still pool that reflects the shapes and colors of the surrounding landscape. There is no sign of human presence; a few deer drink placidly from the stream at right while others nestle in the grass at left. The elemental qualities of the scene are underscored by the swirling mists and the deep shadows cast by the low sun: this is an untouched, wild, sublime place, mysterious and, for the English public, decidedly exotic.
It may well be the public for which he intended this picture that caused Cropsey to forego the prevailing characterization of the White Mountains as a benign and pleasing setting for human activity. While Thomas Cole in the 1820s had shown the area as a savagely beautiful and forbidding place, the coming of the railroad to the region caused his interpretation of the White Mountains to be supplanted by a bucolic vision, popularized by John F. Kensett (1816-1872) and others. Cropsey's return to Cole's imagery, to the White Mountains as the "forest primeval," clearly meshed with his British audience's notion of the New World. His work remained extremely sought after for the rest of his stay in England, and upon his return to the United States in 1863, he found that his celebrity and the market for his pictures had preceded him.
CT
REFERENCES
"A White Mountains Landscape by Jasper Francis Cropsey." Currier Gallery of Art Bulletin, February 1963, pp. 1-6.
Donald D. Keyes et al. The White Mountains: Place and Perception. Ex. cat. University Art Galleries, University of New Hampshire, Durham, 1980. Pp. 46, 88-89.
William S. Talbot. Jasper Francis Cropsey 1823-1900. Ex. cat. National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1980. Pp. 82-83.
Exhibition
1857 Royal Academy of Arts, London, England, "The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts. MDCCCLVII. The eighty-ninth." May 4 - July 25. 1963-1964 Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN, "Four Centuries of American Art." Nov. 27, 1963 - Jan. 19, 1964.
1968 University of Maryland Fine Arts Gallery, College Park, MD, "Jasper Cropsey, 1823 - 1900: America's Painter of Autumn." Feb. 2 - Mar. 3.
1970-1971 "Jasper Cropsey." Organized by National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Traveled to: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, July 7 - Aug. 16, 1970; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY, Sept. 13 - Oct. 25, 1970; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, Nov. 20, 1970 - Jan. 3, 1971.
1972 Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, "Painting, Sculpture and Decorative Arts from the Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire." May 14 - June 20.
1976 Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, "The Natural Paradise: painting in America 1800 - 1950." Sept. 29 - Nov. 30.
1979 Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, "Small Gallery on a Large Scale." June 16 - July 29.
1980 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, 'More Than Meets the Eye; Hidden Collections of the Currier Gallery of Art." Jan. 12 - Mar. 2.
1980-1981 "The White Mountains: Place and Perceptions." Organzied by the University Art Galleries,University of New Hampshire. Traveled to: University Art Galleries, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, Sept. 7 - Oct. 29, 1980; New York Historical Society, New York, NY, Dec. 1, 1980 - Jan. 30, 1981; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, Mar. 6 - Apr. 19, 1981.
1982 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "Masterworks by Artists of New England." April 3 - May 16.
1986 Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME, "Masterpieces from the Currier Gallery of Art." Sept. 11 - Nov. 2.
1987-1988 Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington, DC, "New Horizons: American Painting 1840-1910." June 1, 1987 - Sept 1, 1988.
1989 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "Nineteenth Century Masterpieces of Landscape and Portraiture: American Paintings from the Fruitlands Museum." Jan. 22 - March 12.
1993 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "Celebrate America! Three Centuries of American Art from the Currier." June 19 - Aug. 29.
1995-1997 "American Art from the Currier Gallery of Art." Organized by the Currier Gallery of Art and the American Federation of Arts. Venues: Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, Dec. 3, 1995 - Jan. 28, 1996; Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL, Mar. 15 - Apr. 7, 1996; Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA, Aug. 10 - Oct. 13, 1996; The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, Feb. 2 - Mar. 30, 1997; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA, Apr. 25 - June 22, 1997; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, July 18 - Sept. 8, 1997, cat. no. 12.
2016-2017 Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH, "Mount Washington: The Crown of New England." Oct. 1, 2016 - Jan. 16, 2017
Provenance
Artist Purchased by J.S. Morgan, 1857
May have been owned by Dr. H. Middleton Turnbull, c. 1947
By 1956 owned by M. Newman
Frost and Reed, London, 1957
Dr. J. T. Williamson
Victor D. Spark (dealer), New York, NY
Purchased by Currier Gallery of Art, 1962
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