Artwork
Scene in the Catskills
Scene in the Catskills is an oil painting by the Hudson River School artist Paul Weber. It dates from 1858 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
This subject aligns with the artist's broader exploration of pastoral scenes that evoke national identity and the restorative power of the natural world.
Weber's 1858 oil painting Scene in the Catskills portrays a tranquil, forested mountain landscape with a winding stream, reflecting the Romantic era's fascination with untouched American wilderness and the spiritual resonance of nature. The composition emphasizes atmospheric depth through layered foliage and subtle chiaroscuro, symbolizing the sublime beauty of the Hudson River School's idealized vistas. This subject aligns with the artist's broader exploration of pastoral scenes that evoke national identity and the restorative power of the natural world.
The work was originally owned by William Wilson Corcoran, who gifted it to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1869; it entered the National Gallery of Art's collection in 2014 after the latter institution acquired the Corcoran's holdings.
Technique & Style
Scene in the Catskills is an oil painting executed on canvas, a medium consistent with mid-nineteenth-century landscape practice. The support measures 53.34 cm in height by 43.82 cm in width, giving the work a modest, upright format suited to a cabinet-scale landscape.
Stylistically, the painting reflects the Hudson River School tradition of American landscape art, depicting a wooded mountain scene in the Catskills with naturalistic handling of light, atmosphere, and foliage typical of Paul Weber's work from this period.
History & Provenance
Paul Weber painted Scene in the Catskills in 1858 as an oil on canvas work. It entered the ownership chain through William Wilson Corcoran, who gifted it to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington in 1869. The painting remained in the Corcoran's collection until 2014, when it was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Scene in the Catskills is an 1858 oil on canvas painting by Paul Weber. It entered the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington in 1869 as a gift from William Wilson Corcoran and was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 2014.
The work measures 53.34 cm in height and 43.82 cm in width. It is part of the collection of the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.) and was formerly held by the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
The painting was exhibited in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1871 and again in 1895.
Context
Paul Weber’s 1858 oil on canvas titled Scene in the Catskills entered the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1869 as a gift from collector William Wilson Corcoran and was later acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 2014. The work, measuring 53.34 cm by 43.82 cm, is held today in the National Gallery of Art’s collection in Washington, D.C., where it remains part of the Corcoran legacy. Art historical records identify it as a representative example of mid-19th-century American landscape painting, reflecting the Romantic interest in the Hudson River School’s aesthetic and thematic concerns, though it is less widely studied than contemporaneous works by Thomas Cole or Frederic Church.
Overview
Paul Weber’s 1858 oil on canvas, Scene in the Catskills, presents a quiet wilderness tableau. A meandering stream cuts through a rugged foreground of boulders, flanked by trees and shrubbery, while distant mountains rise under a sky rendered with subtle gradations of light and shade.
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