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Schwartzbach

Schwartzbach

Artist: Christopher High Shearer (American, 1846 - 1926)

Date: 1874
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Canvas: 43 1/2 x 69 in. (110.5 x 175.3 cm)
Credit Line:Museum Purchase
Object number: 1961.115.1C

This is one of Shearer’s most meticulously painted compositions of a woodland interior, painted partially in Munich, when the artist was in his mid-twenties. According to a 1908 catalog which featured some of Shearer’s landscapes, the painting shows: “an open space in the shadowy woods, through which the far-away blue sky is seen…painted with marvelous truthfulness and a wonderfully pleasing effect; while the frame work of green foliage seems moving and rustling in the whispering breeze, so true to nature has it been painted.”

Indeed, the artist brings a precision to his rendering of botanical specimens, especially in the foreground. The presence of a butterfly alighting on a wild flower reflects Shearer’s keen interest in natural history. The artist had a large collection of butterflies and moths—reportedly 35,000 specimens—which, unfortunately, have not survived.

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