White Horse Ledge D farmer
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farming for art
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farming for art
farming for art understanding, understanding art
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Farmer the symbiotic role farmer, tourist and artist, “consuming views” continuity and change
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send draft to Athea
others for permission
before posting
then do a theclio on this easel spot for this painting and for intervale scenic vista too
fascinating "field" of study
field of view
Farmer the symbiotic role farmer, tourist and artist, “consuming views” continuity and change
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At first glance, the painting above seems like a pretty generic landscape that could be almost anywhere in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains from Maine to Georgia.
It is in fact, a view from North Conway, New Hampshire, now in the collection of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information on it there see this link here. (I am indebted to Athea King, Assistant to the Chief Curator and Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the High Museum of Art for her assistance with research on this painting).
It is a relatively small (15 x 26 inches), oil on canvas, that depicts a vast view across a broad field towards a sun setting behind a shadow bound defined mountain range and back lighting the clouds in a variety of white, silver, gray and pink. From an aesthetic perspective it would be considered an average painting, nice but unremarkable.
As we shall see in a moment, it is an "unfinished study." However, for a small, unfinished painting of average quality, it is actually an amazing historical document with meticulous details painted by an artist with keen observational skills and an intimate familiarity with the site.
If you look closely, it records a number of unique and distinctive features that when "reframed" in context with period maps, guidebooks, modern photos, newspaper articles, and other art works help reveal a narrative of changing attitudes towards a specific landscape over time from a variety of different perspectives.
In this first blog we will draw our attention to a few simple brushstrokes near the center of the painting (here or earlier? nice to put right up front)
few small, simple, seemingly insignificant black and white brushstrokes easily ignored, missed by an art historian, that can be "read" from different perspectives to reveal hidden chapters in the artwork.
Over several more blogs we will look at the same painting from other three or four different perspectives, first from a recent sport enthusiasts (and tourists?), activity associated with ...
then farmer, tourist, then artist community.
So we will go beyond curatorial aesthetics, the paint surface, through the looking glass, and use this painting as a valuable tool, before color photography was available, to read, reveal a lost landscape. This painting can serve as a window into the past. virtual visit, through space and time.
on its surface, landscape art about depicting, a place in time, at a specific time, use the painting in combination with other disciplines, to understand, explore that space. different dimensions, different stories, different narratives, especially interesting if surprising, unexpected
While much of the "field of view" has changed, remnants of the scene can still be seen today,
tomography, slices, sections as in science, cat scan
to write, to describe
tomograph
tomogram
focal plane
some obscured, some partial, some changed, , painting as a tool to uncover meaning behind the palimpsest we can view today, lost buildings, connections, etc. reframe, context
taken within context, and looked at from different perspectives, it takes on added levels of significance.
into the realms of the tourist, geologist, glaciologist, rock climbers, hikers, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice climbing, kayaking,
loggers and quarrymen who saw a different kind of product, more destructive use
then activated preservationists
In this first blog we will draw our attention to a few simple brushstrokes near the center of the painting (here or earlier? nice to put right up front)
few small, simple, seemingly insignificant black and white brushstrokes easily ignored, missed by an art historian, that can be "read" from different perspectives to reveal hidden chapters in the artwork.
The High Museum's website lists the painting title as Moat Mountain and White Horse Ledge, Study, North Conway, New Hampshire and the artist as James David Smillie (1833-1909). It is dated September 1867.
It is not clear from the available records how this painting came to have "Moat Mountain and White Horse Ledge" in the title, but the description is accurate.
previous blogs looked at the mountains, ledge, echo lake, etc. from perspective of
rock climber and geologist, science and sport, here
tourist and artist here
now
You can also see the forests once coveted by loggers, stone slabs that were quarried and carried off, and other natural features that when threatened rallied the community to preserve the land you see in the painting.
The painting depicts fertile fields that are still farmed today yielding products that are sold at a local farmer's market a short distance from the "easel spot" where this scene was painted.
Let's start our odyssey into art by looking closely at the bottom left corner of the painting using the zoom feature on the High Museum website. You can read the inscription in red lettering Unfinished Study. and below that North Conway. Sept ’67. (click on images to enlarge them).
While paintings are often signed, titled and dated it is unusual to have the phrase "unfinished study" written on the front.
think of this detail of painting farmer's perspective, the role of the road and the fences and stone walls, suggestion of stone walls,
drovers, teamsters, etc.
Warren Schomaker, Curator at the Jackson NH Historical Society, has mounted a number of ground-breaking exhibits that have compared iconic White Mountain scenes from sketch to canvas. He has included photo comparisons as well as poetry, literary references, whiskey bottles, and historical artifacts in his exhibits to help explore the art.
They also have a large relief map in the center of the gallery.
It is my contention that you can not have a serious landscape art exhibit without a map, especially one like this that allows you to orient the paintings to the topography in the map.
Let's return to the painting and follow the road on the left as it leads our eyes into the scene. letting the painting reveal itself to us.
The road curves up and down and past a copse or group of trees which I suggest is an apple orchard. (click on image above to enlarge it and study the trees).
Describing a tourist trip to White Horse Ledge, Sweetser's 1890 guidebook to Southwestern New Hampshire mentions an orchard of gnarled apple trees (p. 14, see it here).
Let's now continue our journey past the apple orchard through the painting and into the wide, broad intervale of the Saco River.
The river itself is actually hidden out of sight, but notice the little bit of blue towards the right at the edge of the forest on the other side of the open field in the image above. That is Echo Lake. We will come back to that later.
From the farmer's perspective the open fields between the orchard and the ledges were the most valuable type of land. Known regionally as "intervale" land.
evidence of extensive farming. look closely see fence and field patterns.
FMI on field patterns see Frosty woods blog here.
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The intervale land is the result of regular flooding of the Saco River which also creates a pair of terraces on both sides of the flood plain.
This little red book ties tourism to farming
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Sweetser's 1890 guidebook to Southwestern New Hampshire reports that "North Conway occupies a situation of peculiar beauty, on a shelf-like terrace in the great eastern portal of the White Mountains, where the Saco River flows down through broad intervales, over whose beautiful emerald floor the vase central range is seen with the best possible effect." (p. 11, see it for yourself here).
I enjoy the flamboyant florid language of nineteenth-century guidebooks. I think that this is a pretty good literary description of this painting.
word pictures in words, pictures also preserved in words of period guide books.
also in period guide books
particular language on the nineteenth century (later we will see how described by different outdoor enthusiasts in different language) landscape language, language of the landscape
has changed over the years
such as 1876 Sweetser here. pp. 71-86
or see our original copy at the Conway Public Library's Henney History Room.
see in ryan's room, esp for the profile pics, like map, to scan?
seems like these maps already pulled out and in flat files at hhr room,
check that
His 1876 edition,
period guide books
such as 1876 Sweetser here.
provides interesting context
p. 73
"The most beautiful features of the scenery .. are the broad intervales..." Arcadian air.. sweet pastoral beauty."
houses swept off in the flood of 1800.
In the painting, you can see the terrace on the opposite (west side) of the open field known locally as "intervale" there at the base of the ledges.
The "easel spot" for the painter was on the edge of the terrace on the eastern side of the intervale which is why the painting has an almost "bird's eye" view above the intervale. (more on this later).
In 1792, historian Jeremy Belknap used clear, simple descriptions in fascinating period language and script, (using f in place of s). using the medial S, also known as the long S, to explain about the role of the Intervale flood plain.
esp interesting p. 128. read it online here. or see our original copy at the Conway Public Library's Henney History Room.
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It reads ... "There is a great variety of soil in New-Hampshire. The intervale lands on the large rivers, are accounted the most valuable, because they are overflown and recruited every year by the water from the uplands, which brings down a fat slime or sediment, of the consistence of soap. These lands produce every kind of grain in the utmost perfection; but are not so good for pasture as the uplands of a proper quality."
p. 66-69
ox-bows horse shoe ponds
"... rivers change their courses, and leave their ancient channels dry... In some places, these ancient channels are converted into ponds, which, from their curved form, are called horse-shoe ponds..."
"The banks of the upper and lower intervales, are often parallel to each other, and when viewed from the opposite side, appear like the terraces of an artificial garden.
67-68 freshets every year
"Every Spring there is more or less of a feshet, caused by the dissolving of snow in the woods and mountains...
68-69
Floods also occurred in the Autumn. Belknap describes floods in October 1775 and October 1785.
"Stacks of hay were carried off, cattle were drowned or otherwise killed, and the Indian corn, then ripe for harvest, was destroyed."
"Saco river has risen twenty-five feet, in a great freshet; its common rise is ten feet."
Belnap's book served as a how to manual, guide for settlers interested in farming the area.
after the slime, next few pages he explains how trees serve as indicators of the soils and agricultural uses
insert some of that here
"...the soil is distinguished by the various kinds of woods which grow upon it, thus: White oak land is hard and stone, the under growth consisting of brakes and fern; this kind of soil will not bear grass, till it has been ploughed and hoed, ..."
he goes on to describe other types of soils, trees, and how to prepare for the land for specific crops.
These fields were a popular subject for artists as well as farmers.
symbiotic relationship
farmers hayed the fields, keeping open for artists and tourists they attracted
in many places the trees have grown back in blocking the view we once had
preserved now only in the paintings.
Were it not for ongoing farming (and two golf courses) we would probably not be able to see this scene today.
The continuity of farm and recreation in this painting can also be seen in the logo of the friends of the ledges who help preserve the landscape seen in the painting.
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friends of the ledges logo here. include farming furrows that emphasize the continuity of agricultural history, farming furrows.
local food movement here. (keep or cut this bit about the farming?) here or down below when do the intervale? and the ridge?
or say farmed with new tools and techniques
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unique valley originals here.
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This recent resurgence thriving local food is a reflection of a period when hotels promoted local foods, often had their own gardens, dairy cattle herd, was Kearsarge Hotel, ads, menus, pr for health, sanitary reasons
today along the Saco intervale are upick apples, strawberries, whiskey distilled, maple sugar, syrup, native corn, beer brewed, beef raised,
sold at farmer's market stone's throw from the "easel spot" for this painting.
you can see more historic intervale farming from another popular easel spot a few miles north.
looking from the scenic vista we will examine the intervale view from the perspective of the farmer, then geologist, then recreational tourist, local kayak, x country ski, snowshoe, etc.
farmer views field as fertile, place to raise crops and livestock
note many of the paintings from this angle show haying activities.
previous blogs
looking at is glacial till
fitz
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In this painting by Benjamin Champney. you can see a similar apple orchard, and similar field and fence patterns can be seen
you can also see haying activities in many of the artworks from this viewpoint (easily accessible from the intervale scenic vista here link to theclio
fmi on this painting see wma com here.
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looking from the scenic vista we will examine the intervale view from the perspective of the farmer, then geologist, then recreational tourist, local kayak, x country ski, snowshoe, etc.
farmer views field as fertile, place to raise crops and livestock
note many of the paintings from this angle show haying activities.
previous blogs
looking at is glacial till
There are in fact three similar paintings of that same view by Champney. Note the shadows and placement of trees don't match.
A third similar painting by Champney showing the fields was sold at The Cobbs in 2017. the apple orchard can be seen in the lower left in the foreground.
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FMI on that painting see here.
and on wma here.
More paintings of the North Conway Ledges can be found wma com here.
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White Mountain winter scenes are relatively rare during the nineteenth century.
here is painting of the ledges from near the intervale scenic vista
insert Cropsey currier winter view ledges and the intervale
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FMI see currier here.
why this not on wma com?
For other winter wma see wma com here.
winter scenes depicts documents both work and fun
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While snow shoeing part of 19th century experience, only in past 25 years? see history section website, cross country skiing now ... (this actually north of the scenic vista)
Mt. Washington Valley Ski Touring and Snowshoe Foundation,
groomed trails
FMI here.
also sleigh rides offered Farm by the River here. (closed temp during covid).
One of my favorite paintings by Albert Bierstadt show the intervale fields from a slightly different angle.
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FMI see their website here.
previous blog here.
and bierstadt here. ? did I not blog this?
previous blog here.
refer to my chapter in book? or hit some of the highlights here? list approaches I took
soil science, botany, folklore, folklife, etc. family history,
orchard here? maybe on the left?
glacial till
do the glacial till geology first, before plucking? or after or where?
need to add pics that bit from www here.
fmi on this view see my article "Patterns in the Landscape" in Beyond the Notches, pp. 103-108, where I cover the role played by settlement history trends, folklore, fire, soils, plants, ecology, history, geology, agricultural history, floods, hydrology, in shaping this view. see scan and post link to archive org and/or expand on it with my old notes
Bierstadt is known to have used photography as a way to record a scene to help with his painting. Compare the painting above with the photo below.
For more on this photo see this link here.
If you want to visit the easel spot for yourself, visit at the Intervale Scenic Vista
for directions see google map here.
Compare the Bierstadt painting and photo above with the one below I took at the north end of the Intervale scenic vista parking lot closely matching the Bierstadt painting (click on images to enlarge them).
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now we have explored the vista view from the farmer's and tourist's perspective, let's revisit the view bierstadt and others of the scene from intervale vista from the geologist's perspective
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zebra
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cut if used before
fmi on this view see my article "Patterns in the Landscape" in Beyond the Notches, pp. 103-108, where I cover the role played by settlement history trends, folklore, fire, soils, plants, ecology, history, geology, agricultural history, floods, hydrology, in shaping this view. see scan and post link to archive org and/or expand on it with my old notes
lasers from space illustrate some of these points, and show the "ancient" old courses of the rivers and the horse shoe bends, ponds and the terraces on either side of the Saco intervale.
see patterns, evidence the ever changing courses
insert lidar here? or say later we will look at some maps and photos showing the patterns made by the winding Saco River ....
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why click on this goes to a blog instead of this pic like it should?
previous blog here we looked at tourism, now look at this farming
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The sign on the post behind the little boy "gate keeper" reads "pure milk and maple sugar." One of the Lucy family, see their bio book at hhr
direct connection farming and tourism
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crossing the field from intervale to ledge, scenic vista view here or above?
outstanding in their field
farming allows tourism
previous blog on tourism and recreation here
put here about recreation,
the floating bridge
led tourists to see the wonders of the west side
built covered bridge and then later floating bridge across the river here
cottrell noco p.
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here is a lidar map at that scale (or focusing on the intervale between the shelf like terrace on the right and the ledges on the left, showing the remnants of the ever changing course of the Saco, the floods, etc.
can also see Echo Lake do a detail pic of that or box in red or something
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add copy this lidar with arrow showing the view shed, line of sight
perhaps only need the one with the yellow line? no, use both
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friends of the ledges here.
wm trail collective here.
access fund here.
etc.
these trails have an interesting history of development, threat and protection
reporter news online, Runnells, reminiscence of his father wagon driver
then threatened by loggers and quarrymen, rock cutters
where to put original archival hand written "Minutes of the Custodians of the Cathedral and White Horse Ledges."
see minutes archive.org here.
online Reporter News from 1942 here. reminiscence russell
"A quarry company worked up this granite" referring to the boulders that created the Devil's Den (see my blog here). "... and it was then that the people of the community became alarmed for fear the ledges themselves would go, so from public spirited citizens enough money was contributed to have the faces of the two ledges and later these were presented to the State."
more details on this project can be found Reporter News online here.
1900 or 1901 group bought,
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Now let's enjoy the view from the top
Now let's enjoy the view from the top
as we have virtually climbed
gives clue as to where was the artist's viewpoint probably was?
can you see it?
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if you had a drone you could fly in a straight line from here past the White Mountain Hotel in the foreground, past Echo Lake with it's sandy beaches, over the broad intervale (notice how much more forested the intervale is compared to the painting), past some of the sandy beaches of the Saco River. past not one, but two golf courses. You can also see the runs for Cranmore ski resort coming down from the highest peak on the horizon at the left.
to the artist's viewpoint just below and behind the historic train station.
(add nhhs sketches, photos of the train station, kearsarge, boardwalk, academy, etc. here or in separate blog?) perhaps the North Conway George Inness knew and send that to Michael Quick and other Inness scholars.
A way to confirm this "fly over" is with a digital climbing map of White Horse Ledge here.
zoom if as needed to locate the number 28
then zoom it out draw an imaginary line through the white mountain hotel, just north of a golf course, below the south end of Echo Lake, over the meandering Saco River,
to/through/south of another golf course, over forested areas and field
to a ridge
let's look again at the painting and compare to some recent photos from just south of the North Conway train station. about x miles north of the Conway Public Library.
best match I could make comparison to line up all the peaks and valleys of the mountains.
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I suggest the high viewpoint in the painting due to the shelf like ridge we will see depicted in different ways in different types of maps, including lidar, usgs, etc. hatching,
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do a tracing on light table to get a scudder like sketch of the profile/outlines, contours, w
what does scudder call it?
scudder p. 176
red ridge, north moat, attitash, etc.
The website White Mountain Art has a exploratory technique feature for doing this they call/called "Annotated Topographical Features."
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pioneered by our/my friends there. See this link here.
me add names for these peaks
this photo taken between the train station (now for scenic train rides) and Ledgeview .... country club
overlooking a golf course
near where the boardwalk from the Kearsarge Hotel ended (where to include these pics?)
I think the "easel" spot would have been around here X marks the spot, redo with an x on the ground there
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(easily accessible from Schouler Park here link to theclio entry here.
(to do update this)
use different pic so not show trespassing
if you visit please be sure to respect private property, observe all rules regarding parking and safety, plenty of free public parking around the park, do not cross the tracks, etc.
let's look at the "easel" spot on google satellite view here and in the image below indicated by the red square. (click on images to enlarge them and be able to read the building names).
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North Conway Golf Course Country Club (Ledgeview ...) of the North Conway Golf Course,
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put the below here or below?
A detailed view of the "downtown" area from map published x year of North Conway shows the R.R. Depot, the Academy and the Kearsarge.
below is a corresponding detail of a map published in The White Mountain Echo newspaper on June 27 1885, p 12 (click on images to enlarge them). We will see the map in its entirety later.
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the hatch marks indicate the shelf-like ridge that helped provide the high view spot and protected North Conway village from the intervale floods. more on this later or discussed above.
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The photo below shows the buildings that replaced the kearsarge hotel and the academy. From left to right the North Conway Community Center, country club, fire station, train station and New England Ski Museum.
The building on the left (now the North Conway Community Center) was site of the Kearsarge Hotel and the building on the right (now the New England Ski Museum) was the site of the North Conway Academy where Inness had his studio.
(click on images to enlarge them).
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print, light table sketch the mountain profile to match this
what scudder call this type sketch?
what called in sweetser, etc.
see those maps pulled from guidebooks in flat files at hhr
panorama contour/profile diagram
Notice that the outline, contours, profile of the mountains behind as seen in the Smillie painting.
here compare google map with wm echo map
The building on the left (now the North Conway Community Center) was site of the Kearsarge Hotel and the building on the right (now the New England Ski Museum) was the site of the North Conway Academy where Inness had his studio.
The Kearsarge Hotel was a favorite place for artists to stay. It had a wooden boardwalk that ran from the hotel to the train station.
The photo above shows left to right the North Conway Community Center, country club, fire station, train station and New England Ski Museum.
Notice that the outline, contours, profile of the mountains behind as seen in the Smillie painting.
The building on the left, now the North Conway Community Center, was the site of the Kearsarge Hotel, a favorite place for artists to stay. It had a wooden boardwalk that ran from the hotel to the train station, whose tower can be seen in the photo.
This boardwalk was featured in a number of photos and artworks including rigor of the game by George Inness.
The building on the right was the site of the North Conway Academy where George Inness had a studio so he would have been very familiar with this area.
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I argue the Smillie painting would have been done from around the spot where the boardwalk reached the train rail line.
This was and remains a very artistic area. In the map detail above note the label White Photographer near the top and as well as Pease photographer. near the Baptist Church to the east across from the R.R. Depot.
map published in The White Mountain Echo newspaper on June 27 1885, p 12 (click on images to enlarge them). We will see the map in its entirety later.
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the same issue of the paper includes ads for these photographers. For previous future blogs on them see here and here.
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the mwv arts association is near the train station now.
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This section of the map below shows Champney studio on the south to the TEM White studio on the north and Echo Lake on the west.
here a map published in The White Mountain Echo newspaper on June 27 1885, p 12 (click on images to enlarge them). in its entirety.
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The map below was published in The White Mountain Echo newspaper on June 27 1885, p 12.
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below is a lidar map showing the shelf-like ridge referred to in sweetser guide book
can't get that to show, do a lidar map at this scale instead?
shelf-like ridge on both sides saco flood plain, intervale
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can see remnants of stonewalls and even the furrow lines of fields plowed and mowed.
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below is a google map view at a zoomed out, larger scale that shows... what I figure deduce to be the direction of the artist's view from just south of the train station on a high bank looking across the valley, intervale, with a bit of Echo Lake to White Horse Ledge.
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crop more to get rid my pic top right, or that ok?
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google terrain topo map here. showing left to right White Horse Ledge, Echo Lake, Saco, golf course, North Conway Scenic Railroad.
insert pic of that here too
here is a lidar map at that scale (or focusing on the intervale between the shelf like terrace on the right and the ledges on the left, showing the remnants of the ever changing course of the Saco, the floods, etc.
can also see Echo Lake
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below is a also do a satellite view at this scale and insert pic of that here
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google terrain topo map here. showing left to right White Horse Ledge, Echo Lake, Saco, golf course, North Conway Scenic Railroad.
insert pic of that here too
closer satellite here
North Conway Golf Course
insert pic of that here too
here compare google map with wm echo map
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in conclusion, while not immediately obvious, upon closer examination it reveals fascinating
If you look closely, there are a number distinctive, identifying, details that may go unnoticed unless pointed out, examined closely and
more associations revealed, unveiled
more to this painting that meets the eye, at first seems typical,
more to this painting than first appears, apparent
When reframed in context with period maps, guidebooks, archival from the Conway Public Library's Henney History Room.
illuminated, illuminates
this painting provides fascinated changing attitudes over time
farmers productivity of land, protecting crops and livestock
then discovered by tourist promoters, including artists, but also seen in tourist guide books, newspapers, etc. hotels, roads and bridges,
floating bridge
then loggers and quarrymen who saw a different kind of product, more destructive use
then activated preservationists
to rock climbers who see in the same landscape an adventure that never seen before
what next?
add virtual bob? at the end
add virtual bob? at the end
see you next time!
Hope you enjoyed virtual visit,
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This is digital Bob signing off... for now...
... until next time.
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