View of Swampscott, Massachusetts
Artist/Culture
Thomas Doughty
(American, 1793–1856)
Dateabout 1837
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 81.8 x 122.6 cm (32 3/16 x 48 1/4 in.)
frame: 95.3 × 135.9 × 6 cm (37 1/2 × 53 1/2 × 2 3/8 in.)
frame: 95.3 × 135.9 × 6 cm (37 1/2 × 53 1/2 × 2 3/8 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Terms
Object number1946.35
Label TextAlthough this landscape depicts a distinctive place—Swampscott, Massachusetts, twelve miles up the coast from Boston—from a particular vantage point above Nahant Bay, it has been filtered and arranged by Thomas Doughty to conform to standard ideas of picture composition. Doughty anchors his composition at right with an exaggeratedly tall tree. He also directs viewers’ attentions throughout the scene by the positions of his long figure and dog, who gaze at a locomotive chugging through the middle ground, before the eyes are captured by the peak of a roof in the town in the distance. Thomas Doughty was largely self-taught, and followed the examples of British and Dutch landscape paintings he had seen engraved in imported prints. His landscapes thus are combinations of the real—such as the Eastern Railroad—and the ideal, in a balance that pleased his audiences.ProvenanceRobert C. Vose Galleries, Boston, MAOn View
Not on view
