Object Lesson

The Artist in the Act of Taking the View

By Karen Parsons

Loomis Chaffee History Teacher & School Archivist

In early July 1863, Osbert Loomis traveled to northern New England. Like many other traveler artists of the 19th century, he intended to capture broad vistas of the White Mountains and to record details of the distinctive regional flora, rural roads, houses, barnyards, and village scenes. During the next three months, Loomis produced more than six dozen pencil sketches. His primary goal — to gather visual material for future paintings — made this a business trip. Notations written on these drawings provide a further look into where he went, what he saw, and whom he met. Seamlessly melding his dual passions of making art and wayfaring in the countryside, Loomis left behind a nascent travel blog, an invitation to journey alongside him during an era of flourishing tourism in these northern mountains.

The entire trip, as well his 1857 excursion there, depended on local economies of transportation, published and in-person guides, hotels, and purveyors of supplies for artists’ and travelers’ needs. Loomis most probably rode north through the Connecticut River Valley on cars of five different local railroads before changing to a stagecoach taking him to Center Harbor, New Hampshire. From there, he headed into the mountains, spending about two months in and around North Conway, Jefferson, and Franconia, most likely traveling on foot and by coach or wagon. On September 13, Loomis was in Danville, Vermont, drawing views of the Green Mountains and beginning his return home. Notations made on sketches throughout the trip identify rivers, roads, hotels, and private homes. On a day he described as “too cloudy to see the dirt,” Loomis bought a pocket compass for 25 cents from George F. Wade on top of Red Hill, New Hampshire. He recorded when he viewed distant sights through his telescope and hints at what happened when he hoped to sketch from the center of Canaan Lake, writing “Frank Buck Jones son tried to get oars for the boat.” Osbert’s drawings feature attractions promoted by popular tourism guidebooks. He sketched the Emerald Pool; the “Profile,” also known as the Old Man in the Mountain; and the look-alike Imp Face outcropping near Mount Washington. He sketched from Artist Hill and made drawings of Artists Falls, Artists Brook, White Horse Ledge, Camels Hump in Vermont, and various perspectives on broad swaths and individual mountains of the Presidential Range. In the language of superlatives common in these guidebooks, Loomis noted the “largest boulder in New Hampshire,” the “highest point of Red Hill place where visitors ascend,” and a “sky perfectly clear of rich warm & beautiful color.”

His paintings, “The Source of the Ammonoosuc” and “Artists Brook,” both dated 1864, draw from sketches made during these trips. One presents the spontaneous beauty in the gentle splash of a stream set against foreboding mountains. The other depicts a gathering of well-dressed elite tourists with their parasols in a forest opening, an accurate recording of one impact that tourism had on the region. The surviving fragment of a third painting shows the Waumbek House in 1863. This Jefferson, New Hampshire, hotel expanded soon after to accommodate the ever-increasing waves of visitors to the region. Each painting depicts characteristics that enticed tourists to the White Mountains. A different sketch placed Osbert in this historical landscape, working at an easel in an open-sided, covered horse-drawn wagon with the caption, “July 27, 1863 Mt. Washington with Deacon Droly, the monitor and the Artist in the act of taking the view.” One year later, Loomis inked parts of the pencil sketch, thickening some of the lines of his drawn landscape and adding a new date, perhaps to show to patrons or for exhibition. That intimate glimpse into his work remained a sketch, one entry of many from his sojourn in the mountains.