The Life and Art of
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The Artist’s Dream
Samuel L. Gerry (1813–91)
Signed, lower right: “S L Gerry.”; undated, circa 1878
Oil on canvas (54 x 35 3/4 in.)
Courtesy of the New Hampshire Antique Co-op, Milford, N.H.
This major painting, which was on Gerry’s easel in March 1878, achieves, perhaps more than any other, Gerry’s aspirations “to be alone with nature.” It is certainly more ethereal than his other work. According to a tradition associated with the painting, the scene represents fellow artist George Loring Brown at Tivoli Falls in Italy, a sight that has long attracted visiting artists. Gerry and Brown had met during one of Gerry’s sojourns in Europe, where Brown, an American, lived in the 1840s and 1850s.
