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View of Centre Harbor, New Hampshire
Samuel L. Gerry (1813–91)
Signed and dated, left of center on rock: “GERRY / 1847”
Oil on canvas (26 1/4 x 40 1/4 in.)
Collection of the New Hampshire Historical Society, gift of D. Bruce Montgomery
2021.002
Gerry had already been coming to New Hampshire for more than a decade when he painted this sweeping landscape of a romantic, yet realistic, Center Harbor. As more tourists came to the Granite State, Center Harbor became a gateway to the White Mountains, a convenient jumping-off point for visitors before they journeyed into more rugged terrain and experienced more rudimentary accommodations. Center Harbor seems almost bucolic in Gerry’s depiction, unlike the hive of activity it was quickly becoming in the late 1840s. Nevertheless, this painting shows a more urban scene than was typical of Gerry’s work.
