Provenance:
Private Collection, Pennsylvania
Nature and Art!
Admirers of the fascinating beauty of the Adirondacks will greatly appreciate the representation on canvas of the enchanting scenery of that region. All the paintings of this kind, as well as other subjects, hitherto produced upon the easel of that promising young artist, Levi W. Prentice, evince not only a high order of talent, but a fidelity to nature and the subject which is really remarkable.
Mr. P has made that romantic region a careful study and the copies of scenes he has witnessed. A visit to his studio and an hour passed in an examination of his collection will prove a matter of rich enjoyment to any lover of the beautiful.
Guide to the Adirondacks, 1875
The creator of some of the most delightful landscapes and still lifes in American art, Levi Wells Prentice was born in Denmark, New York, a rural town in Lewis County. In 1870, his family moved to Syracuse and by the time he was twenty-one, he had established himself as a very successful painter. Having grown up near the Adirondacks, Prentice painted landscapes of the surrounding mountains, lakes, and woodlands during the time when the Adirondacks were gaining popularity with sportsmen and tourists.
Prentice's unique painting style was easily discernable from that of his contemporaries. He was greatly influenced by the composition and subject matter of the Hudson River School artists, and his attention to minute, naturalistic detail was inspired by John Ruskin's philosophy of truth to nature and by his fascination with photography and especially the stereograph. Although Prentice was closely allied with the Hudson River School his style was entirely his own, a unique combination of bold outline, crisp detail, and a vibrant, color palette.
Like many of Prentice's small Landscape paintings, Autumn Reflections is a charming, example epitomizing the notion of the sublime in late-nineteenth-century American landscape painting. Although the location of this painting is not known, it is truly representative of the characteristic tranquility and beauty of the Adirondack region he so diligently depicted.
In 1884, Prentice and his wife moved to Brooklyn, where a strong and close-knit art community had developed and became affiliated with the Brooklyn Art Association, which encouraged artists to work and live together. Through this organization, Prentice joined his peers, William Mason Brown and Joseph Decker, who were pursuing the popular trend of still-life painting. From this time on, Prentice focused on painting still lifes. His still lifes also retain the clear forms and vibrant color palette of his elegant landscapes.
Prentice's work can be found in numerous collections, including the New York Public Library, New York, NY Onondaga Historical Association, New York; Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, New York; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Montclair Art Museum, Mountclair, New Jersey; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; and the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan.
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