White Mountain art

In the early part of the 19th century, artists ventured to the White Mountains of New Hampshire to sketch and paint. Many of the first artists were attracted to the region because of the 1826 tragedy of the Willey family, in which nine people lost their lives in an avalanche. These early works portrayed a dramatic and untamed mountain wilderness. The images stirred the imagination of affluent Americans, primarily from the large cites of the northeast, who traveled to the White Mountains to view the scenes for themselves. Others soon followed: inn keepers, writers, scientists, and, of course, more artists. The White Mountains thus began to assume their place as a major attraction for people from the New England states and beyond. The beauty of the region was soon to be shared by others who, because of lack of means, distance, or other circumstance, could not visit but were able to purchase paintings or prints depicting the area. Thus, during the ensuing years of the 19th century, art, tourism, and the economy of the region became inextricable linked.

Transportation improved to the region; inns and later Grand Hotels, complete with their "artists in residence," were built. Benjamin Champney (1817-1907], one of the early artists, popularized the Conway Valley. Other artists preferred the Franconia area, and yet still others ventured to Gorham, Shelburne and the communities of the north. Although these artists all painted the same picturesque views of the White Mountains, each had a unique style of his own. These landscape paintings in the Hudson River tradition, however, eventually fell out of favor with the public, and, by the turn of the century, it was the end of an era of White Mountain art.