Sketches of Trees

About this artwork

Research in Progress

Art Historical Context

Samuel Colman’s “Sketches of Trees,” dated April 27, 1898, offers a quiet window into the working practice of an accomplished American artist late in his career. Created when Colman was sixty-six, the drawing captures the kind of careful, on-site observation that sustained many nineteenth-century landscapists. As a finished sheet rather than a preparatory study, it reveals how the artist continued to engage directly with the natural world even after decades of painting and travel. The medium itself—pencil or graphite on paper—highlights the intimate, immediate nature of drawing. Unlike oil paintings meant for public display, such sketches often served as private records of form, light, and texture. Their presence in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, gifted by Mrs. Samuel Colman, underscores the personal value these works held for the artist’s family and their subsequent importance to the national collection. Although research on this particular sheet remains in progress, its date and subject remind viewers of the enduring American fascination with the landscape at the close of the nineteenth century. Each delicate line invites us to slow down and notice the quiet architecture of branches and trunks that Colman found worthy of sustained attention.