Mount Lafayette from Franconia, New Hampshire

A member of the second generation of Hudson River School painters, David Johnson first ventured to the White Mountains of New Hampshire in 1851. Recalling the journey, fellow artist Benjamin Champney described “the New York contingent, headed by [John William] Casilear. They were: David Johnson, John Williamson, and a nephew of A. B. Durand. We made a jolly crowd.” (as quoted in John I.H. Bauer, “’…the exact brushwork of Mr. David Johnson,’ An American Landscape Painter, 1827-1908,” The American Art Journal, vol. 12, no. 4, Autumn 1980, p. 39) Johnson made numerous subsequent sketching trips to the region, which he immortalized in picturesque canvases such as Mount Lafayette from Franconia, New Hampshire.

Painted with meticulous detail, the present work depicts in the distance Mount Lafayette—the tallest peak within the Franconia Range—with the Gale River visible in the foreground. With precise execution, Johnson brilliantly captures the rugged beauty of the New Hampshire range, which served as a popular locale for Johnson’s fellow Hudson River School artists. Linda Ayres explains, “The White Mountains region was popular with writers, scientists, and tourists in the mid-nineteenth century, and artists such as Thomas Cole…John F. Kensett, Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt, Jasper Cropsey, and Asher Durand made its magnificent scenery known to the American public. For many, these rugged mountains—the highest in the Northeast—represented the archetypal picturesque American wilderness.” (American Paintings: Selections from the Amon Carter Museum, 1986, Birmingham, Alabama, p. 18)

A related study to the present work is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois.