Cherry Lake, White Mountains

Art Historical Context

**Cherry Lake, White Mountains**1859) by Aaron Shattuck captures the serene beauty of New Hampshire's White Mountains, favored subject among 19th-century American artists. Shattuck, an accomplished landscape painter influenced by the Hudson River School renders Cherry Lake with meticulous detail, evoking the Romantic ideal of nature's grandeur. Created during a period when American artists sought to celebrate their nation's wilderness amid rapid industrialization, this work reflects the era's fascination with the sublime American landscape. Executed in graphite with gouache on wove paper—a technique blending precise pencil drawing with opaque watercolor highlights—the piece exemplifies preparatory studies common in the Hudson River tradition. Gouache allowed Shattuck to achieve luminous effects on light-diffused water and foliage, while the modest 12⅝ × 19-inch sheet made it portable for plein air sketching in rugged terrain. Such drawings often served as foundations for larger oil paintings, bridging fieldwork and studio mastery. Now part of the National Gallery of Art's Corcoran Collection, this drawing highlights Shattuck's skill in capturing atmospheric depth and natural harmony, inviting visitors to appreciate the quiet poetry of 1850s American outdoor art.