On the Saco, North
Conway
Oil on canvas, 9" x 13"
S/D/L/C 1861
On the Saco
Oil on canvas, 8.5" x 16"
S/D/L/R 1879
The Belknap Mill Society
Sunday, August 15, 1999 through Thursday, September 30, 1999
|
|
| Benjamin Champney | Benjamin Champney |
On the Saco, North
Conway |
On the Saco |
[Click on the image for an enlargement]
| In the unusual, earlier composition, Champney used a tree in the center of the painting to provide a focal point for the distant ledges. The small figures on the river and up the embankment suggest the scale. The hazy atmosphere is similar to another Champney painting in this exhibition, Mount Chocorua from Fowlers Mill. In the later painting, Champney used his typical fall palette of the 1870s. While the ledges are a major component of Champney's earlier work, the Saco and the fall foliage capture our attention in the later work. Notice the different treatments of the water reflections — fall colors in the later painting, reflections of the noonday sun in the earlier composition — but both on smooth, placid water. Champney was a master at painting water. Look at his various depictions of water in his other paintings in this exhibit, for example Tuckerman's Ravine and Lion's Head or Mount Kearsarge. |
The Exhibition
[About the Exhibit] [Artists] [Paintings]