Medium: O/C
Support: Canvas
Artist: Alden Sampson
Artist Dates: 1853-1925
Country of Origin: United States
Title & Description: "Traveler in a Landscape" This painting appears to be of Mt. Hood, a mountain in the National Park of the same name in Oregon. The snow-covered Mt. Hood towers over the other mountains between the valley formed by those surrounding a lake. The faded image of a pair of waterfalls can be seen pouring from the mountain closest to Hood. On the side of the lake closest to the viewer, one can see a traveler approaching to the left, along a path. His smallness helps to exaggerate just how immense his surroundings are.
Signature: Yes
Date of Work: C. 1880
Frame: Gilt Wood
Work Size: 22.0x36.0"
Frame Size: 27.5x41.25"
Weight: 12.2lbs
Provenance: New York City Estate
Condition: Under UV light there is a 7" repair from the right edge of the closest rock to the fallen log on the right. It varies from 3/4 - 2" in width. Another repaired tear exists in the top left corner, approximately 3" long and 1/4" wide. Small in-paint repairs have been done along the center top to the lower right of the painting. A new support has been added to the back of the painting, and there is some varnish damage to the surface along the corners and to the top right of the traveler.
Artist Biography: Alden Sampson was born in Manchester, ME in 1873. He was an avid environmental conservationist, known as an authority on game and wildlife. He died in 1925, at the age of 72, of pneumonia, his two children surviving him. He was a part of the Chicago School of Art and traveled to National Parks across the United States to further the conservationist cause as well as to entertain himself with his painting and mountain climbing hobby. There are many letters on record between Alden Sampson and others such as John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and George Bird Grinnell. These letters were often those of encouragement regarding the blossoming effort to protect the natural world within the United States.