The Life and Art of
Introduction • Life • Art • Gallery • Learn More • Acknowledgments
The Willow Road, North Sandwich, N.H.
Samuel L. Gerry (1813–91)
Signed, lower right: “S L Gerry.”; title inscribed in pencil on lower stretcher; undated, circa 1872
Oil on canvas (12 x 20 in.)
Collection of David and Susan Clark
Gerry did not limit himself in his travels to painting well-known landmarks, such as were promoted to tourists. He also documented scenes of ordinary life, sometimes in out-of-the-way places. Here, from the side of a country road, he attempted to re-create the atmosphere of a summer day—one hot enough for farm animals to seek shade. This Lakes Region locale borders on the southernmost White Mountains, seen here in the distance. In 1872, Gerry sold a painting entitled Road Scene in Sandwich, N.H., which was most likely this same painting with a different name, in a multi-artist auction in Portland, Maine. Two months earlier in Boston, Gerry had exhibited and sold another Sandwich scene.
