Artist:
John Ross Key
(American, 1832 - 1920)
Ladies of Lake George
Medium: Oil on canvas mounted on hardboard
Date: 1878
Dimensions:
20 7/8 × 37 7/8 in. (53 × 96.2 cm)
Accession number: 2016.11.15
Label Copy:
For Ladies of Lake George, John Ross Key selected a favorite haunt of the Hudson River School artists as well as affluent summer residents and tourists. The two fashionably attired women, shaded by their parasols, direct our gaze toward the glassy surface of the lake. Key’s richly topographical composition of hills, lake, and distant mountains is likely a nod to his earlier work as a map-maker. In the skillful capturing of light, the abundance of botanical detail, and the carefree mood, Key creates a visual ode to a summer day.
For Ladies of Lake George, John Ross Key selected a favorite haunt of the Hudson River School artists as well as affluent summer residents and tourists. The two fashionably attired women, shaded by their parasols, direct our gaze toward the glassy surface of the lake. Key’s richly topographical composition of hills, lake, and distant mountains is likely a nod to his earlier work as a map-maker. In the skillful capturing of light, the abundance of botanical detail, and the carefree mood, Key creates a visual ode to a summer day.
Curatorial Remarks
Self-taught and gifted in drawing, John Ross Key was a cartographer for the United States Coast Survey. In 1859, he joined Frederic Lander’s expedition to the West with a team that included Alfred Bierstadt—an experience that undoubtedly influenced Key’s future as a landscape painter. After the Civil War, Key exhibited his expansive landscape views in New York, and then Boston, where an impressed Louis Prang, noted printer and publisher, sent him to California from 1870-73 to create scenes for a series of color lithographs.
For Ladies of Lake George, Key selected a favorite haunt of both Hudson River School artists as well as affluent summer residents and tourists. The two fashionably attired tourists direct our gaze towards Key’s richly described topographical composition, which, like many Hudson River School paintings, has water as a reflective surface in the middle ground, echoing the sky and distant mountains. In the skillful capturing of light, the abundance of botanical detail, and the carefree mood, Key creates a visual ode to a summer day.
Self-taught and gifted in drawing, John Ross Key was a cartographer for the United States Coast Survey. In 1859, he joined Frederic Lander’s expedition to the West with a team that included Alfred Bierstadt—an experience that undoubtedly influenced Key’s future as a landscape painter. After the Civil War, Key exhibited his expansive landscape views in New York, and then Boston, where an impressed Louis Prang, noted printer and publisher, sent him to California from 1870-73 to create scenes for a series of color lithographs.
For Ladies of Lake George, Key selected a favorite haunt of both Hudson River School artists as well as affluent summer residents and tourists. The two fashionably attired tourists direct our gaze towards Key’s richly described topographical composition, which, like many Hudson River School paintings, has water as a reflective surface in the middle ground, echoing the sky and distant mountains. In the skillful capturing of light, the abundance of botanical detail, and the carefree mood, Key creates a visual ode to a summer day.