Artwork
The Cypress-Shingle Yard, Ocklawaha River, Florida
The Cypress-Shingle Yard, Ocklawaha River, Florida is a watercolor work on paper by the American Impressionist artist Harry Fenn. It dates from 1870 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- Accession no.
- 1973.290.1
- Credit line
- Purchase, Frederick H. Rohlfs Gift, 1973
About this work
Fenn painted this in 1870, just after the Civil War, when Florida’s wild landscapes were being mapped and logged.
You see a quiet riverbank lined with tall cypress trees and a few men loading shingles onto a boat. The water is still, the sky soft and hazy.
Fenn painted this in 1870, just after the Civil War, when Florida’s wild landscapes were being mapped and logged. The men aren’t posed, they’re just working, almost blending into the scene. The trees, stripped of bark, look ghostly, like bones sticking out of the water.
Look up watercolor, glazing to see how thin, layered washes build light and depth in this kind of scene.
Subject & Meaning
The work portrays a man engaged in shingle-making beside the Ocklawaha River in Florida, set among cypress trees. Harry Fenn rendered the scene as a detailed landscape emphasizing the laborer's relationship with the surrounding vegetation, using watercolor, gouache, graphite and gum arabic on light tan wove paper. The composition reflects 19th‑century American artistic interest in rural industry and the natural environment, suggesting a symbolic connection between human activity and the region's dense forest canopy.
Technique & Style
The work is executed in watercolor combined with gouache, graphite, and gum arabic on a light tan wove paper support.
Fenn’s handling blends translucent washes with opaque gouache highlights to articulate foliage, water reflections, and the shingle yard’s textures. Graphite underdrawing remains visible in the refined linear structure of trunks and buildings, while gum arabic likely contributes gloss to selected passages. The composition emphasizes vertical rhythms through towering cypresses and the upright mass of the shingle shed, with a muted palette of ochers, greens, and grays conveying the humid Florida light and atmosphere.
History & Provenance
Created in 1870, The Cypress-Shingle Yard, Ocklawaha River, Florida is a watercolor, gouache, and graphite work on light tan wove paper by the American artist Harry Fenn. The piece measures 18.6 cm in height and 27.3 cm in width. It is currently held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art within its American Wing.
The artwork depicts a landscape scene featuring trees and a man, capturing a specific industrial site along the Ocklawaha River in Florida during the late nineteenth century.
Overview
The Cypress-Shingle Yard, Ocklawaha River, Florida is a watercolor painting created by Harry Fenn in 1870, utilizing a combination of watercolor, gouache, graphite, and gum arabic on light tan wove paper.
Context
The painting's depiction of working men integrated into the landscape, without pose or emphasis, suggests a focus on the mundane aspects of human interaction with nature during a period of significant environmental and economic change in Florida.
Legacy
As part of Fenn's oeuvre, The Cypress-Shingle Yard contributes to the broader legacy of American Impressionist and illustrative art, offering a glimpse into late 19th-century America's relationship with its natural territories.
Artist & collection
Artist
Harry Fenn (September 14, 1837 – April 22, 1911) was an English-born American illustrator, landscape painter, etcher, and wood engraver.
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