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Henry Pember Smith
(American, 1854 - 1907)
Landscape on Pond
Alternate Title(s)
- Early Morning
late 19th century
20 × 28 1/8 in. (50.8 × 71.4 cm)
2016.11.27
Richard M. Scaife Bequest, 2015
Not on view
Like many landscape painters, Henry Pember Smith relished the transitory effects of light which created a poetic view of nature. He specialized in painting picturesque views of farmsteads, often accented by a country lane, an out cropping of trees, or ducks floating on a pond. These quiet, serene views are set off, as in Landscape on Pond, by glowing clouds filtering the sun’s rays. A native of Connecticut, his landscapes reflected both a real and an idealized view of country life in the Northeast, though he also traveled and painted abroad, working for a time in the villages of England and France. While not as well-known as others of his generation, Smith’s singular approach to village and rural views contributed to the evolving form of landscape painting in American art.