Mt. Jefferson, Pinkham Notch, White Mountains (Primary Title)
Jasper Francis Cropsey, American, 1823 - 1900 (Artist)
This canvas testifies to Cropsey’s well-earned renown as America’s painter of autumn. He belonged to the core group of artists that became known as the Hudson River School— a loosely associated group of like-minded painters who took as their chief subject the regional forests and mountains of the northern United States.
Mount Jefferson celebrates the vastness of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. By the time painters flocked to the region, tourism and technology already were altering the landscape. Cropsey hints at this transition through the axe-carrying figure who passes a tidy stacks of new lumber. The nearby sawmill denotes an American paradox: with the advance of civilization comes destruction of primeval wilderness.
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