1922

The Elm Tree

American, 1894 - 1972

Born to a privileged family in Merion, Pennsylvania, Harold Weston had already crisscrossed the globe—traveling and studying art in Europe, India, and the Middle East—by 1920, when he retreated to an isolated cabin and studio in the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York. There he painted this landscape of his pristine surroundings. With its colorful palette, forceful brushwork, and visionary treatment of light and space, this depiction is clearly influenced by the dominant movements of European modernism, which Weston had encountered firsthand while abroad.