Vermont Landscape
1943
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
black and blue ink on wove paper
Dimensions
overall: 12.8 x 20 cm (5 1/16 x 7 7/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Sally Michel Avery
Accession Number
2002.104.2.26
Art Historical Context
**Vermont Landscape** (1943) by Milton Avery invites visitors into the serene hills of New England through delicate lines of black and blue ink on smooth wove paper. Measuring just 5 x 7⅞ inches, this intimate drawing captures the artist's eye for essential forms—rolling hills, sparse trees, and open skies—rendered with fluid, economical strokes. Avery, a pivotal American modernist (1885–1965), distilled complex scenes into harmonious simplifications, bridging Impressionism's light play with the bold abstractions of emerging postwar artists like Mark Rothko, his protégé. Created during World ...
About the Artist
Milton Avery
Milton Avery, born on March 7, 1885, in Altmar, New York, to a working-class family—his father a tanner—grew up in modest circumstances. After his family's move to the Hartford area of Connecticut in 1898, he took on various manual jobs, including as a mechanic, clerk, and construction worker, to support himself and relatives following family tragedies. His artistic path began around 1905 at the C...