Chapel Pond, Adirondacks
Artist
Mary Josephine Walters
American, 1837 - 1883
Dateca. 1871 - 1872
MediumChapel Pond, Adirondacks
DimensionsStretcher: 8 × 12 in. (20.3 × 30.5 cm)
Frame Dimensions: 16 × 18 1/2 in. (40.6 × 47 cm)
Frame Dimensions: 16 × 18 1/2 in. (40.6 × 47 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of the estate of Jean Wing Davis
Object number2001.4
On View
Not on viewCollections
- American Paintings & Sculpture
SignedSigned on the front of the canvas, LR: "M.J. Walters".
InscribedTwo pieces of paper glued to the reverse of the canvas. One is a long piece of printed text that also has some handwriting on it. All of the handwriting on these papers are in the same script. In the upper left the printed text is dated by hand "1875". Below this printed text is as follows [part of the right side is cut off]:
"October 8th [in italics] On the arrival of my old mountain guide---m(text missing)/companion in the adventures and explorations of preceding years/[text missing]I set out with him in search of a lake said to exist far up on the sides/ of the Giant Mountain, whose granite cliffs towered above into the/ clouds. Plunging into the forest eastward, we commenced to/ thread the narrow trail to Chapel Pond. Traversing the dark/ gorge between Round Mountain and Giant, brushing through/ the dense undergrowth of yew or "dwarf hemlock," we reached the/ cedar-clad shores of the deep lake which takes its name, not from/ the imposing cliffs which, rising from the water's edge, give it so/ gloomy and singular an appearance, but from an old hunter named/ Chapel [Chapelle], one of the earliest explorers of this section" Below this text, written in ink, cursive, on the same piece of paper is "Report of Verplank (sic should be Verplanck) Colvin Adirondack Survey". [NOTE: Verplanck Colvin (1847-1920) applied in 1872 to New York for a stipend to cover the costs of a survey of the Adirondack Mountains, caused by his alarm at the damage being done to the region by extensive logging. He was subsequently named to the newly created post of Superintendent of the Adirondack Survey. Later he was appointed superintendent of the New York state land survey, which led to the creation of the Adirondack Forest Preserve in 1885.]
The second label, written in ink, cursive by the same hand as on the first, reads "Study/By/M.J. Walters"
DescriptionLandscape with steep, wooded mountain on the right that rises from the water in the fore- and middle ground. A mountain range appears in the background below a cloud-filled sky. A small boat with two figures is transcribed in the left foreground. The figures face away from the viewer.Exhibition HistoryNational Academy of Design, New York, 1871, No. 56"Views of New York: Selections from the Permanent Collection," Wood Gallery, The Hyde Collection, Jan. 13- Mar. 31, 2002.
"50 at 50: Five Decades of Collecting at the Hyde". Wood Gallery, Education Wing, Hyde House, The Hyde Collection. Glens Falls, January 16, 2013 -April 14, 2013
"From the Vault: Staff Selections", THe Hyde Collection, Whitney-Renz Gallery, January 11, 2019-March 31, 2019Provenanceby 2001, Glens Falls (?), NY, Jean Wing Davis
2001, Glens Falls, NY, The Hyde Collection Trust
