Samuel Lancaster Gerry (1813-91) For almost two centuries, the Old Man of the Mountain has been the subject of literary narratives and pictorial delineations, expressive of devotion, speculation, and sometimes even derision. In 1886, Boston artist Samuel Lancaster Gerry presented a grand yet benevolent vision of the Old Man, one in which the foreground is given over to tourists and their activities. Driven by the imperatives of emergent White Mountain tourism, all signs of religious romanticism were removed from the painting. Gerry's dynamic composition draws the viewer's eye in along a diagonal axis from right to left in a way that both energizes and animates the canvas, while unifying the whole work. The Great Stone Face appears marginalized within the rich, spatial depth, which leads the eye toward the foreground grouping of tourists and the spectacle of a vast, unfolding natural setting.
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