Description
This watercolor reveals the technical virtuosity of Harry Fenn, an illustrator famed for his rich handling of detail and his bizarre sense of fantasy. As a young man, Fenn sketched widely in the United States for a lavish two-volume set titled Picturesque America. After 1881, he devoted himself to watercolor painting and illustrating. This watercolor represents Lake Memphremagog, which extends across the border of America and Canada, from North Vermont into South Quebec.
Provenance
with Knoedler Galleries, New York (before 1972); with Jules Brassner, New York (1972); Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH (1972-1976); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1976-)
Accession Number
1976.115
Medium
watercolor and gouache over graphite
Dimensions
Sheet: 34.3 x 47.4 cm (13 1/2 x 18 11/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin
Tags
Drawing Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Watercolor Graphite & Pencil Gouache American
Background & Context
Background Story
Harry Fenn (1837-1911) was a British-born American painter known for the precisely observed, atmospheric landscape watercolors and illustrations that make him one of the most accomplished landscape illustrators of the 19th century. Lake Memphremagog from the c. 1880s depicts the lake straddling the Vermont-Quebec border in the precisely observed, atmospheric manner that distinguishes Fenn's best work from the more general landscape painting of his contemporaries. Fenn was known for his precisely observed, atmospheric landscapes of American subjects that were widely reproduced as illustrations in books and magazines, and his work helped define the American landscape tradition.
Cultural Impact
Lake Memphremagog is important in the history of American landscape painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, atmospheric manner that Fenn brought to American landscape subjects as one of the most accomplished landscape illustrators of the 19th century. Fenn's precisely observed, atmospheric landscapes—widely reproduced as illustrations that helped define the American landscape tradition—represent one of the most accomplished traditions in 19th-century American landscape painting, and the c. 1880s painting shows this tradition at its most precisely observed.
Why It Matters
Lake Memphremagog is Fenn's precisely observed American landscape watercolor: the lake straddling the Vermont-Quebec border rendered in the atmospheric manner of one of the most accomplished landscape illustrators of the 19th century. The c. 1880s painting shows the precise observation and atmospheric effect that make Fenn's American landscapes distinctive.
