Existing comment:
William Stanley Haseltine
(1835-1900)
American
Nahant Rocks, New England
1864
Oil on canvas
Gift of Mrs. Helen Haseltine Plowden, London, England, 1961, A1140
So intrigued with these gigantic rocks along a peninsula in the Massachusetts Bay north of Boston, Haseltine painted more than sixteen pictures of them on his many trips along the Massachusetts coast in the 1860s. These smooth-topped igneous rocks (often called "fire rocks"), formed from magma and thrust to the surface, attracted several geological theories, including those of Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), a professor at Harvard during Haseltine's student years, who proposed direct creation. His theories were challenged by the evolutionary studies of Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Haseltine, like Bierstadt and Kensett, spent several years studying in Europe before he launched his career. His daughter gave Nahant Rocks, New England to the museum. |