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FRANCONIA Notch
George Albert Frost (1843-1907)
Signed and dated lower right: G. A. Frost. 1883.
Oil on canvas, 28 x 48 inches
Private collection
The vista into Franconia Notch from the south became known as the "Artist's View." Boston artist George Albert Frost expands our understanding of the White Mountains with an imaginative interpretation of Franconia Notch. Classically composed, with dark foliage framing the left side of the canvas and an expansive open space in the middle ground, giving way to atmospheric mountains in the distance, the Notch is presented as an Arcadian idyll. Frost cherished the restorative power of the unspoiled landscape in life as well as in art, summering in rural Brownfield, Maine, adjoining Conway. Franconia Notch's appeal as a subject may reflect that life in the area was still slow-paced. Its virgin landscape was as yet hardly altered by railroads, hotels, and related improvements.
