White Mountain Museum & Gallery

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The White Mountain School of Art is a branch of the Hudson River School. Many of the artists overlapped, including the founder of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole, who traveled to the White Mountains of New Hampshire to paint the majestic mountains, wild rivers and ancient forests.

Unlike the European romanticists, who responded to the urbanization of the Industrial Revolution, by painting romantic paintings of Greek gods, mythical creatures, and crumbling castles, the Hudson River School focused on the grandeur and splendid beauty of nature over the insignificance of man and his creations. The Industrial Revolution’s demand for lumber opened access to the huge white pines of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Along the rivers and into the notches, settlers came first by stagecoach, then by trains that were harvesting timber. The artists soon followed. 

In 1826 a devastating mudslide, called The Willey Tragedy, brought attention to the powerful nature and wild environment that was integral to the White Mountains. A family of settlers high in Crawford Notch were wiped out in a huge mudslide. Reports of the tragedy were romanticized in city newspapers up and down the East coast. Soon, artists arrived to document the event and the surrounding landscapes. These paintings made their way back to the parlors of urban businessmen and the White Mountains became a destination. As cities grew congested and sooty with factory smoke, people sought relief in the clean air and rural reaches of the North, and no place was more pristine and beautiful than the mountains of New Hampshire. Between 1880 and 1910, there were approximately 30 grand hotels that sprang up throughout the region, drawing the nation’s wealthiest families to New Hampshire

Artists like Benjamin “Crackbone” Champney (1817–1907) was an early painter to work in the area. In 1854 he built an artist studio near Sunset Hill in North Conway which still exists. Champney is considered the dean of the White Mountain School of Art and many painters, including Kennett, Shuttuck and Brown, painted with him. Another artist who built a home in the valley was Frank Henry Shapleigh (1842-1906) who built a beautiful summer estate near Jackson Falls. There are over four hundred painters associated with the White Mountain School. Many would travel to the area only two or three times in their career, others would spend the Summers at one of the new Inns like the Glen House, built in Pinkham Notch, in 1852.

North Conway is arguably one of America’s first artist colonies. Many artists would spend their days in the mountains painting en plein air, as depicted in Winslow Homer’s (1836-1910) painting, “Artists Sketching in the White Mountains”. In the evenings, they would return to the lobbies of the inns or grand hotels, mingling with the affluent guests and selling scenes of White Mountain landmarks. Many of these paintings were small and unframed so the buyer could easily store them in their trunks for the long stagecoach and train trip back to the city. Today we think of these small paintings as the equivalent of “postcards”. Something to have framed and shown to your friends, to highlight your the great adventure to the majestic White Mountains.

Of course, the most highly prized paintings are often the larger studio works. These sweeping landscapes with luminous skies have a greater degree of detail and mastery. The artists would return to their studios in the cities and create these painting from sketches, small studies and drawings. The great masterpieces of the White Mountain School of Art hang in the world’s finest museums and collections. 

As they transitioned into the 1900’s, many artists developed with the times and painted in more impressionistic styles, using softer broader brush strokes, with less of a focus on realism and more on the feel and tone of the setting being painted. These later paintings featured luminescent sunsets, deep forest floors with dappled sunlight and landscapes with tonalist influences of the French Barbizon School. This transition, while beautiful and exciting to see also marked the end the White Mountain School of Art.