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Alvan Fisher
A Roadside Meeting: Winter, 1815
New Englander Alvan Fisher made the most of the region's long winters, often painting snowy landscapes. His winter series of 1814-15 is among the first attempts in American art to depict the frigid season. While such imagery has 17th-century Dutch precedents, an 1835 newspaper review praised Fisher for choosing to paint the New England countryside, calling the subject a "truly American" one. The rural simplicity Fisher evokes has since become a touchstone for national nostalgia.
America's native landscape specialist and an early genre painter, Fisher also produced a number of paintings of the era's famous racehorses. Examples of these can be seen in the museum's Paul Mellon sporting art galleries. |