19th Century Hudson River School paintings complement American Paintings Collection at the Hood Museum

We just returned from a visit with Abby at Dartmouth. While there, she brought us to the Hood Museum to see a magnificent collection of 19th Century Hudson River School paintings on loan from a parent of a Dartmouth student, including among others, Thomas Cole’s Schroon Lake, 1835–38; John Frederick Kensett’s Landscape (Reminiscence of the White Mountains), 1852; Sanford Robinson Gifford’s Mount Mansfield, 1859; and Albert Bierstadt’s Haying, Conway Mountains (Peace and Plenty, North Conway, New Hampshire), 1864. You can read more about this exhibit by following this link: Private Collection Complements the American Paintings Collection at the Hood Museum

One of my favorite works on view is this little gem from the Hood's Permanent Collection, "Below Mt. Manadnock", oil on panel painted around 1913, by Abbott Handerson Thayer, (American, 1849-1921).

In this painting Thayer reverses earlier landscape tradition, by bringing the distant peak into focus and merely suggesting the middle and foreground by an almost calligraphic use of brush strokes.

Another favorite in the exhibition is “The First Thaw”, 1913, Oil on canvas by Willard Metcalf , (American, 1858-1925)

Hood Museum of Art Collection, Dartmouth College

This Painting has a spontaneity and freshness of brushstroke with a wonderful glow of sparkling color that does not show as well in the photo as in person.

The exhibit will run through November of this year.

There is also an exhibit of Modern and Contemporary Art including a wonderful Rothko and a brilliant Sean Scully, that runs through March 14th.

"Wall of Light Summer", 2005, Oil on Canvas, by Sean Scully

If you’re up that way, be sure to visit. Admission is free at the Hood Museum.