Summer Woodlands

Julie Hart Beers

ca. 1870s · Oil on paper mounted to board · The American Wing

Widowed with two young children, Beers began painting at the age of twenty-two in an effort to become financially independent through the sale of her landscapes. Sister of artists James and William Hart, she spent summers sketching in the Hudson Valley and throughout New England. While the precise location of this intimate study remains unknown, it was likely painted en plein air, as suggested by its small size and rapid brushwork. Although her brothers discouraged Beers from engaging in physically demanding outdoor work, she still took up the challenge, writing that she, "tramped on after them many a weary mile through mud and wet."

Artist

Julie Hart Beers

Date

ca. 1870s

Medium

Oil on paper mounted to board

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Purchase, Morse Family Foundation Fund, 2021