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October 03, 2005
Mountain vistas
Maybe the fall foliage is late - who really knows? But if you want an early taste of the colors of autumn, head for the Art Center in Hargate at St. Paul’s School, one of Concord’s hidden gems.
Until Oct. 15, the gallery features paintings by the White Mountain Artists. Benjamin Champney, a New Hampshire native who lived in North Conway and painted in the White Mountains for five decades, is synonymous with this group. But many artists spent at least some time working in the bracing air and amid the stunning vistas of the Whites during the 19th century.
We saw the Hargate exhibit on Saturday. Although the subjects are large – mountain landscapes – many of the paintings are small. This is part of their charm, as is the familiarity of the scenes to anyone who has spent even a little time in the mountains. You will swear when you see the bared tooth of Chocorua’s peak or the white cap of Mount Washington beyond the trees that you have stood where the artists stood. And perhaps you will be right. You will also ask yourself how these artists were able to contain such majestic views on such small canvases and boards.
Champney is well represented in the exhibit, and there are better known artists, too, including Albert Bierstadt. If you go, don’t miss the one small painting by Robert Scott Duncanson. He was born to a Canadian father and a free African-American mother in upstate New York in 1821. He did most of his painting elsewhere but stopped in our mountains long enough to join the ranks of White Mountain Artists.
The Hargate is a small gallery, and a tour of the paintings takes no more than a half hour. The gallery is open from 10 to 4.
Posted by Mike Pride at October 3, 2005 07:15 PM