Sunday, Oct. 20, 1872- We left for the mountains Monday Sept. 16 and returned Wednesday Oct. 16 having been gone a little over four weeks. We staid at the Laurel House as last year. Vaux came up and spent a couple of weeks and Mary and Mrs. Monell spent a week. Vaux's business called him home sooner than he had hoped and he left with regret. I think he very much needed rest and recreation. Gifford came after we had been there some time and Mary Gifford and Sallie Wilkinson also came for a couple of weeks and remained until we came home. Whittredge and his wife meanwhile were at Scribner's where we left them. The weather was most unfavorable during the most of our stay, frequent rains and some gloomy skies. The foliage was not nearly as brilliant as usual and the color was at its height a day or two before we left, about the 12th to 15th. It was so cold that I could not sit out of doors much of the time and so I did not get as much as I had hoped, still I made three or four studies which will be useful to me. As it was, I exposed myself painting in the woods one cold day and caught a cold which clings to me yet. Many more people visit the mountains in October than heretofore. Last year we were the only ones at the Laurel House and this year parties kept coming and going all the time we were there so that there were constantly from ten to twenty five people in the house. I am afraid that our quiet times there are at an end and that the number of quests will increase in the fall from year to year. We left in the nick of time for the weather has continued the same until today which is bright and still but cold. Whittredge thought he would leave on Tuesday next but I would not be surprised if he had already gone. Girard is up today. My father has gone out to visit his brothers. We passed him on the train on Wednesday. We found Emily Stevens and her husband here on our arrival. I have written a letter today to Gussie and one to Mr. Raniger regarding my pictures. I have authorized him to sell the Snow picture for 140 pounds or $600 and the "November" if it is not on its way home for 200 pounds or $1000. Found a nice long letter from Eastman Johnson awaiting me here and Gertrude received one from Jeannette Hubbard from Paris. Since I came home I have painted a little study of a fog effect from "Sunset Rock" and commenced a picture of the wood interior on the Mountain House path same size as the study 16 x 22 and after painting two days on it abandoned it and began a new one on Saturday which is a little more promising. We expect to go down to the city about the 6th of Nov. and I am anxious to get two or three things ready before I go.
< Previous Entry | Next Entry >Have you ever wanted to see a handful of folders in a collection at the Archives of American Art, but you couldn't find the time to come to our DC reading room? Then the Archives of American Art’s Digitization on Demand service is for YOU!
Original material can be consulted by appointment in our Washington, D.C. Headquarters.
Copies of unrestricted microfilm materials can be obtained through one of our affiliated research centers.
Research and reference services provides help finding, accessing, and using the collections at the Archives of American Art.
