Study of Trees

ca. 1880

Joseph Frank Currier’s deep love of nature made him a committed pleinairist who regularly sketched outdoors, seeking to document nature’s shifting moods. Each of these studies conveys an overall impression of the landscape rather than botanically specific detail. Currier captured the billowing canopies of trees with broad tonal masses made with rubbings and smudges of charcoal. He used the tip of the stick to articulate branches and other forms in dark lines. The expressive execution endows the natural world with a sense of dynamism, as if the trees are possessed of an inner life.