View of Mt. Washington

View of Mt. Washington from 1881 is a late work by Cropsey, painted when the Hudson River School was declining in popularity and the more intimate approaches of the Barbizon-influenced painters were gaining favor. The painting shows Cropsey returning to the panoramic landscape format that had defined his career, with Mt. Washington—the highest peak in the White Mountains of New Hampshire—dominating the composition. The view is expansive, the atmospheric effects are dramatic, and the fall foliage (if present) would demonstrate Cropsey's continuing commitment to the autumn colors that had made his reputation.

By 1881, the Hudson River School was being displaced by the Barbizon-influenced Tonalism of George Inness and the more intimate landscape approaches of the American Impressionists. Cropsey's View of Mt. Washington represents the older tradition at a moment of transition—still committed to the panoramic view and the dramatic chromatic effects that had defined American landscape painting for a generation, but increasingly out of step with the quieter, more intimate approaches that were gaining favor.

View of Mt. Washington is Cropsey's Hudson River School tradition in its late phase: still panoramic, still dramatic, still committed to the panoramic vista that was the School's signature. The 1881 date makes this a late work by an artist whose style was becoming historical even as he painted it.