Chestnut Trees at Bolton, Lake George shows Gerry’s interest in capturing the beauty of Nature while also including figures and cattle in harmony with their surroundings. The painting is likely the combination of several viewpoints, but the artist’s general perspective is looking due south from Bolton towards the lake, capturing the Sagamore Hotel on tiny Green Island in the middle distance and the peaks of Pilot Knob rising in the background.

More information about this painting...

A Comprehensive Report on the painting and its location is available for perusal. A spiritual man, Gerry believed in the popular religious notion that Nature encompassed the divine, writing in an 1857 article in The Crayon: “[artists shall]…paint, not for the amusement of self or others, but for the instruction, and the honor of Him, in whose great gallery of painting and sculpture we daily make memorandum studies.”[1] The lush greenery, grand mountain summits and crystalline waters of Lake George became a mecca for painters beginning in the early 19^th century and the region continues to inspire to this day.

This painting retains its original frame. 

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[1] The Crayon, 4 November 1857, p. 351

Provenance:

Private collection, Wakefield, Rhode Island

Inscription:

1. (in pencil top stretcher) Chestnut Trees at Bolton Lake George / S. L. Gerry
2. (in pencil on frame) Chestnut Trees at Bolton Lake George / S. L. Gerry