JEROME B. THOMPSON (1814-1886)
Mount Mansfield (1,340 m - 4,395 ft)
United States of America (Vermont) - Canada border
In The Belated Party on Mansfield Mountain, Oil on canvas, 96.5 x 160.3 cm, 1858
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 759
Thompson earned a reputation for combining the breadth of Hudson River School landscape painting with the anecdotal appeal of contemporary genre painting. This work is one of several in which he used Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak, as a foil for domestic recreation. As half the party of day trippers admire the summit and the vista toward Lake Champlain, another young man holds his watch aloft, warning of the lateness of the hour and the need to descend. But, as people their age are wont to do, the three youths watching the sunset ignore him, enraptured by the beauty of nature.
The mountain
Mount Mansfield (1,340 m - 4,395 ft) is the highest mountain in Vermont. The summit is located within the town of Underhill in Chittenden County; the ridgeline, including some secondary peaks, extends into the town of Stowe in Lamoille County, and the mountain's flanks also reach into the town of Cambridge. When viewed from the east or west, this mountain has the appearance of a (quite elongated) human profile, with distinct forehead, nose, lips, chin, and Adam's apple. These features are most distinct when viewed from the east; unlike most human faces, the chin is the highest point
Mount Mansfield is one of three spots in Vermont where true alpine tundra survives from the Ice Ages. A few acres exist on Camel's Hump and Mount Abraham nearby and to the south, but Mount Mansfield's summit still holds about 200 acres (81 ha). In 1980, Mount Mansfield Natural Area was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.
Located in Mount Mansfield State Forest, the mountain is used for various recreational and commercial purposes. "The Nose" is home to transmitter towers for a number of regional radio and TV stations. [There are many hiking trails, including the Long Trail, which traverses the main ridgeline. In addition, the east flank of the mountain is used by the Stowe Mountain Resort for winter skiing. A popular tourist activity is to take the toll road (about 4 miles (6.4 km), steep, mostly unpaved, with several hairpin turns) from the Stowe Base Lodge to "The Nose" and hike along the ridge to "The Chin."
Jerome Thompson was an American painter, member of the National Academy of Design. He was born in the family of portrait painter Kefas Thompson, who initially did not want to educate his son as a painter, wanting him to become a farmer ! Interest in art, however, prevailed.Young Thompson was initially involved in painting portraits (at the time portraying, among others, Abraham Quary, the last living member of the Nantucket Indian tribe). At the age of 17, he founded a studio in Barnstable, Massachusetts, which he moved to New York in 1835.
At the beginning of the 1850s, he became interested in the landscape , in which the good reception of Pic Nick, Camden, Maine exhibited at the National Academy of Design played a large role.
In the years 1852-54 he studied in England. After returning to the United States, he worked, among others at Mineola on Long Island and Glen Gardner New Jersey. He achieved significant artistic and financial success, including thanks to the popularity of lithographs made based on his work.
The artist is mainly known for genre scenes most often of rustic themes, and pic nicks in which the landscape is of paramount importance. His light-saturated works resemble paintings by Hudson River School painters, are rich in light effects and tonal subtleties. The main genre scenes are usually small and usually complement the exposed landscape in the background.
Thompson's largest collections include the Brooklyn Museum , Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The artist is mainly known for genre scenes most often of rustic themes, and pic nicks in which the landscape is of paramount importance. His light-saturated works resemble paintings by Hudson River School painters, are rich in light effects and tonal subtleties. The main genre scenes are usually small and usually complement the exposed landscape in the background.
Thompson's largest collections include the Brooklyn Museum , Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
