Echo Lake at Franconia Notch, New Hampshire

Introduction by Kevin J. Avery, Senior Research Scholar, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Better known for his large paintings of the western United States, Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) nevertheless also visited and painted in the White Mountains beginning in 1852 until as late as 1886.  In 1860, he helped identify views for his brothers Edward and Charles to photograph, and subsequently publish in their photographic catalogs.  This painting, which was once thought to be an image painted out west, was identified through comparison with one of the Bierstadt brothers' photographs.

By mid-century, Bierstadt and other artists began to paint meditative views of forest interiors and tranquil bodies of water, offering an alternative to the vast mountain vistas which had made the area famous.  Echo Lake, Franconia Mountains brings the two approaches together, with the intimate details of the landscape in the foreground, while the dramatic vista of the mountains and  storm clouds overhead remind the viewer of the larger landscape beyond the tranquil lake. The location of light in the painting reinforces the movement of the eye from the beach to the edge of the forest and  to the mountain beyond. There is no suggestion in this painting that the lake was likely to be filled with tourists or that there was a busy hotel opposite this beach.

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