Artwork of the Week: August 19, 2024
Leaves fall, trees decay, water glistens on a forest floor—all seemingly untouched by human hands. Yet the Catskill and Adirondack forests of New York State (where William Bliss Baker worked) had long been impacted by logging, mining, tanning, and farming.
Originally stewarded by the Mohican, Esopus Lenape, Munsee Lenape, and Haudenosaunee (Catskills) and Abenaki and Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Adirondacks), the consequences of settler deforestation spurred efforts to preserve these forests by the late 1800s. In 1885, the year before Baker finished this painting, the New York State Legislature created the Catskill and Adirondack Forest Preserve that designated over half a million acres to “be forever kept as wild forest lands.” Baker’s own studio was near Ballston Lake neighboring this preserve.
Sycamore, birch, beech, pine, ferns, and lichen populate this wetland, providing a dual vision of a hardwood forest safe from—yet made possible by—human intervention.
The MOA is grateful to Max Darrington, former BYU Arborist, for his generous insights. This work will be on view in the upcoming exhibition, Crossing the Divide: American Art from the Permanent Collection, opening on September 20, 2024.
