Gilpin's Mill on the Brandywine

The direct observation of nature was important to Thomas Doughty, one of the earliest American painters to devote himself exclusively to landscape painting. His work influenced Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School of landscape painters. A Philadelphia native, Doughty trained himself as an artist by copying European paintings in various collections in the city. He received commissions to depict estates and public buildings and sometimes supplemented his income by painting multiple versions of a scene. This painting, along with the one hanging nearby, depicts a paper mill on the Brandywine, built in 1787 by Joshua and Thomas Gilpin.