Study of Birch Trunks (Scribners')

Jervis McEntee

1869

gouache

From the collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art

Impressionism Realism Late 19th Century tree

About this work

Thin birch trunks rise from a soft, shadowy ground. Their white bark is marked with dark knots and scratches, like old scars. McEntee painted this in the woods near his home in New York. He used gouache—a thick, opaque watercolor—to make the trunks glow against the blue paper. The quiet focus feels like a private moment, not a grand scene. If you like this, look up more works in gouache.