A Tale Told by Trees

The painting above documents both continuity and change of this landscape.

tie this landscape to theclio here.

However, at first glance it seems like a very dark painting hard to see anything.

If you click on the image to enlarge it, and after a while, a bit of study, observation, looking to notice the groups of people in the foreground (the lower third of the painting).

Just above the horizon are landscape features shrouded in shadow (middle third of the painting).

with a sunset glowing from behind the mountains at the top.

Entitled The Rigor of the Game, Kearsarge Hall, North Conway, New Hampshire, More info on the painting can be found on the Brooklyn Museum website here.

Inness is known for his evocative and enigmatic paintings. According to Wikipedia, Inness had a prolific career that spanned more than forty years and 1,000 paintings, his works consistently earned acclaim for their powerful, coordinated efforts to elicit depth of mood, atmosphere, and emotion.

Neither pure realist nor impressionist, Inness was a transitional figure who intended for his works to combine both the earthly and the ethereal in order to capture the complete essence of a locale.

A master of light, color, and shadow, he became noted for creating highly ordered and complex scenes that often juxtaposed hazy or blurred elements with sharp and refined details to evoke an interweaving of both the physical and the spiritual nature of experience.

In Inness's words, he attempted through his art to demonstrate the "reality of the unseen” and to connect the "visible upon the invisible."

According to the White Mountain Art website here, Inness was fond of New Hampshire and kept a studio on the second floor of the North Conway Academy for several years before 1876.

while I agree Inness avoided the photographic realism of his predecessors, and contemporaries, I contend that he is in fact quite accurate and may have used photography in preparing his paintings.

copy more from white horse ledge blog too?

To outline my argument, I used computer software to lighten the image.

For better clarity I have used computer software to lighten the image... below.

The Brooklyn Museum website includes a black and white version, which also makes it easier to view some of the details.

The painting bears a remarkable resemblance to a photo by Nathan W. Pease, in the collection of the Conway Historical Society accession #x

(coincidence or not?). is the photo dated?

The photographer worked across the street from where the artist had a studio.

Here is a detail of the photo.

Notice how the two mountain peaks on the left line up (Cathedral Ledge in the front and Moat Mountain in the back) in both the painting and the photo.

Let your eye follow the boardwalk towards the mountains and near the end just on the left locate a telegraph pole with wires strung on either side. Here is a closer view of that part of the photo.

On the right side of the boardwalk just before the steam rising from the train engine you can see another pole that looks like it might have a birdhouse on top. This may have been a train signaling device. Some of these still exist in the rail yard here.

Both of these poles can be also be seen in the painting.

The steam engine and the wooden sided freight cars it is pulling are similar to those in the painting.

Note: It is hard to see the cars in the painting as he only scumbled in the suggestion of the train cars. However, if you look closely in the color version below (which I lightened even more), you can see the horizontal and vertical boards of the freight cars.

Now look at the first building on the right in the photo with a flat facade and four tall windows. The building in the painting includes three of those windows.

This is where Inness stopped. He chose not to illustrate the passenger station.

Here is the entire photo which did include the passenger station.

The main passenger station was built in 1874 and is one of the few buildings in the area listed on the National Register of Historic Places. You can read the text of the nomination form here and see the photos here.

005 bob noco p. 13 copy text to here

the board walk went from the Kearsarge Hotel to the train station.

notice steam or smoke from coal fired, steam engine

This photo produced by Nathan W Pease, who had his shop across the street, where Zeb's is now.

more on that later, in the conclusion

I was trying to line up the landscape features to figure out where the understand the viewpoint, While not apparent at first, I conclude that Inness is surprisingly accurate in his rendering of the scene.

Following a few clues, a little history, I find that Inness has hidden Cathedral Ledge ... in the haze

If you look closely, you can see that he has hidden Cathedral Ledge in the haze.

xalso the cathedral ledge blog previous?

see previous blog/s here, ... and Valley Vision Reel History here for more on Cathedral Ledge.

or is this Whitehorse Ledge?

try to line it up with peak of mt above it

and line it out on a map

and compass

whitaker compass,

take and insert better picture from behind the train station? to match this up?

Inness was a master at rendering atmospheric effects in paint.

While the setting sun creates a haze, glare of the light, strong, almost smoky ledge in shadows, obscures to details in this color version, a black and white version offers more clarity

In another painting he put the peak of Humphrey's Ledge in the clouds, looking across the Saco River from near Kearsarge Village previous blog here.

While Inness liked to buck the older fashion of landscape near photographic realism, I suggest he did paint accurately, effects of light, shadow, clouds

I argue that he was in fact extremely accurate, just hard to see it at first glance, for example, look at the details he included in this part of the painting such as the building on the right which we will see later matches period photos, (click on images to enlarge them).

compare with this detail of a photo we will look at later

even the utility poles

the boardwalk leads to a the utility poles , notice a second pole to the right with what looks like a bird house on it, maybe a train signal?

perhaps something like this photo from the national register nomination form

smoke or steam coming from a pipe on the top corner of that building,

the supports under boardwalk, and telegraph poles, lines

he scumbled in the suggestion of train cars

or through scumbling he has suggested the train cars

look at the evening glow from behind the trees, the different shades of color in the grass, perhaps where some areas watered and cared for more than others?

While the setting sun creates a haze, glare of the light, strong, almost smoky ledge in shadows, obscures to details in this color version, a black and white version offers more clarity

explore series of maps

layering of history

1860 map only the location of the North Conway Academy and the Kiarsarge House not even show the train line or station as train line not built before

below is detail showing

overall for geo-reference showing Champney studio on the south to Whitaker house and beyond. Pease on this?

1880 map published White Mountain Echo, July 27, 1885, p. 12.

detail

1880 map published White Mountain Echo, July 27, 1885, p. 12.

notice Academy and Pease's Photographic.

pulled back a bit, showing from Champney studio in the south/bottom to the Whitaker house in the north.

entire map for reference geo-reference

below 1892 map detail

The Kearsarge, and RR. STA (railroad station), ENG HO (engine house)

the Academy gone?

also shows N.W. Pease, and the Kearsarge, but not the Academy

overall 1892 map for reference

scan and insert sanborn maps

1908 sanborn shows

1923 sanborn shows distinctive curve facing the turntable

insert pic

train station was there but not depicted on 1908 sanborn, but is on the 1923 sanborn

scan at the elh, did I do that?

need to copy to hhr shared if did or when do

insert the map again?

see sanborn?

1908 only digital

1923 paper copy

Now let's look at the boardwalk

board walk also seen in this photo, source, bob noco p. 13, image 005, copy text

005

the board walk led arriving passengers from the train station to the Kearsarge House Hotel.

the boardwalk led to the premier hotel in the area, The Kearsarge

compare to photo p. 47 of North Conway Village NHDHR survey in this folder here.

you can see the barn, buildings to the right of the train station

these featured in sketches by huntington, cooper hewitt

look again at this postcard of the Kearsage House,

insert here or there about the nhhs pease stereo

here

pease also published a stereoview of the boardwalk looking from the train station to the Kearsarge House here.

The boardwalk's practical function insert pics baggage cart, trunks, etc.

sketches from small 1873 watercolor and pencil artwork by John Badger Bachelder at the NHHS bachelder, famous for civil war maps, etc. here.

for more on the artist here.

while practical function ... The Inness painting shows a more social and cultural function of the boardwalk.

The true game depicted is the conspicuous consumption, the evening promenade, show off their fashionable dresses.

With rough, simple, quick but adroit brushwork, Inness captures the finesse and finery of the fashions, clothing, list types here notice the ..

straw hats, bustles, silk top hat, tails, and umbrella all easily identifiable

even the clothing, straw hats, bustles, black silk top hat, umbrella/parasol, coat tails,

Let's look at that postcard of the Kearsarge again,

look again at this postcard of the Kearsarge House, and follow the boardwalk to the right

004

Kearsarge House replaced now with the North Conway Community Center, insert picture of that

then see that same corner of the Kearsarge house and follow the boardwalk passes behind the North Conway Academy.

when Hounsell say it burned?

006

The Academy now replaced with the New England Ski Museum

this building was in fact the location of Inness studio for the year/summer x

probably where he painted this painting

provenance?

the distinctive shape of the steeples in this area, help id location paintings from sunset hill

see previous blogs on this inness and sunset hill here. and here.

Now what is this about trees telling a story?

I argue that those yellow boxes show small trees planted on either side of the boardwalk that eventually grew, can be seen in later aerial satellite photos, see below or put here