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Mount Lafayette
Franklin Stanwood (1852-88)
Signed and dated lower right: FRANKLIN STANWOOD-1886
Titled (above signature): MT. LAFAYETTE
Oil on canvas, 34 x 54 inches
John J. and Joan R. Henderson
Landscapes depicting the White Mountains during the winter are rare, as artists traditionally retreated to the city where they worked from sketches made during the summer. Best known as a Maine marine artist, Franklin Stanwood was born within sight of Mount Washington and, like many other Portland painters of his era, did some of his finest landscapes of the White Mountains. Stanwood perhaps produced this winter scene from a summer sketch or photograph. Since he suffered from consumption, though, it is conceivable that he sketched it during the winter, while on a trip for his health. By the 1880s Stanwood could have reached Franconia fairly easily by train and might have stayed locally.
