Gods in Granite: The Art of the White Mountains of New Hampshire

by McGrath, Robert L.

• ISBN13: 9780815606635
• ISBN10: 081560663X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr

Summary

Robert L. McGrath surveys -- often at an exhilarating pace -- the topographic and metaphoric landscape of New Hampshire's White Mountains through the artistic and tourist life of the region as it appears in paintings and illustrations. Extending from the late eighteenth to the late twentieth century, he includes by far the most extensive collection of pictorial works relating to the White Mountains to date.

Although the scenic beauty of the White Mountains attracted many of America's most significant artists during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as Thomas Cole, Frank Stella, Winslow Homer, Fernand Leger, John Marin, and Marsden Hartley, no comprehensive account of this region's rich contribution to the history of American art has ever been published.

Written in a vital, concise prose style, full of fresh insights, comparisons and juxtapositions, this study promises to command and hold the attention of anyone with an interest in the interplay of art, nature, and American culture.

Author Biography

Robert L. McGrath is professor of art history at Dartmouth College.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction	xvii
Color Plates	xxix
The Ideographic Image	1	(4)
The Switzerland of America	5	(4)
The Willey Catastrophe	9	(16)
The Landscape of Terror
The Technological-Sublime	25	(6)
Strategies of Accommodation and Opposition
Chocorua	31	(24)
The Landscape as History
John Marin's Chocorua and the Poetry of Wallace Stevens	55	(4)
Frank Stella, Chocorua I	59	(2)
Mount Washington	61	(16)
An Icon of Place
The Eastern Slopes	77	(2)
Summit Views	79	(14)
The Landscape as Pleasure and Adversity
The Landscape of Desire	93	(18)
Painting and the American Barbizon
Moat Mountain	111	(6)
The Landscape of Accommodation
Franconia Notch	117	(4)
The Moralized Landscape and ``Quarries of Truth''
The Lakes	121	(6)
The Eastern Frontier	127	(4)
The Old Man of the Mountain	131	(4)
Gods in Granite
The Flume	135	(10)
A Sermon in Stone
The New Landscape	145	(2)
Work and Play	147	(4)
Tourism	151	(12)
From the White Mountains to the Black Hills	163	(2)
The West Comes East	165	(14)
The Modern Vision	179	(20)
``Ars Potentior Natura''
Works Cited	199	(10)
Index	209