Who painted At Five Ponds, North Waterford, Maine?

At Five Ponds, North Waterford, Maine was painted by Edward Seager in 1845.

Where can I see At Five Ponds, North Waterford, Maine?

At Five Ponds, North Waterford, Maine is held by Metropolitan Museum of Art.

What movement is At Five Ponds, North Waterford, Maine?

At Five Ponds, North Waterford, Maine is associated with Romanticism.

At Five Ponds, North Waterford, Maine by Edward Seager (1845)

Accession no.: 1982.289
Credit line: Purchase, Vain and Harry Fish Foundation Inc. Gift, 1982

About this work

You see a quiet forest scene: five still ponds, tall pines, and a low mountain ridge under a soft sky.

You see a quiet forest scene: five still ponds, tall pines, and a low mountain ridge under a soft sky. The lines are sharp where the artist scratched into the surface, like carving light into paper.

Seager made this in 1845, when most American artists were painting grand history scenes. Instead, he chose a simple corner of Maine, treating it with care. The scratched lines (called sgraffito) let him draw light itself, not just shapes.

To see how other artists painted quiet places, look up the subject American landscapes.

Subject & Meaning

The drawing portrays a tranquil New England landscape centered on a pond surrounded by trees and distant mountains. The sgraffito technique reveals layered graphite on gessoed paper, emphasizing the quiet presence of natural forms. This depiction reflects 19th-century American landscape sensibilities, where wilderness symbolized both spiritual reflection and the emerging national identity of the young republic.

The composition draws on observable topography near North Waterford, Maine, while the inclusion of mountain and tree motifs aligns with contemporary aesthetic ideals of the Hudson River School. The work was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1982 and is cataloged as 1982.289 in its collection.

Technique & Style

At Five Ponds, North Waterford, Maine is executed in graphite with sgraffito on buff-colored gessoed paper, a combination that pairs a smooth, prepared ground with both additive drawing and subtractive scratching techniques. The buff-toned gessoed support would have provided Seager with a warm mid-value surface, allowing the graphite to register in darker tones while the sgraffito, where the top layer is incised away, could expose lighter passages beneath, producing varied tonal effects suited to the depiction of mountains, trees, and the broader landscape. Classified as a drawing within the American Wing, the work is a landscape genre piece in which these dual techniques lend themselves to the rendering of natural forms and atmospheric terrain.

History & Provenance

The artwork At Five Ponds, North Waterford, Maine is held in The American Wing collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with inventory number 1982.289. It was created by Edward Seager in 1845 using graphite and sgraffito on buff-colored gessoed paper. The work has been part of the museum's collection since its acquisition and has not been documented in external exhibition records.

Context

Edward Seager's 1845 graphite drawing with sgraffito on gessoed paper, depicting a mountain landscape in North Waterford, Maine, was created during a period when American artists were developing distinct regional landscape traditions. The work is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection (American Wing, landscape genre) and reflects the broader 19th-century American engagement with natural scenery, particularly in New England settings.

Overview

Edward Seager’s drawing, titled At Five Ponds, North Waterford, Maine, dates to around 1845. Executed on buff‑colored paper prepared with gesso, the work portrays a tranquil forest setting: a low ridge, a solitary tree, and five reflective ponds beneath a muted sky. The composition emphasizes the quiet, unadorned character of a remote Maine landscape.