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Tuckerman’s Ravine and Mount Washington
Samuel L. Gerry (1813–91)
Signed, lower left: “S L Gerry.”; undated
Oil on canvas (16 1/2 x 27 in.)
Collection of P. Andrews and Linda H. McLane
At least five Gerry paintings of this scene are known to survive today, making it one of his most common White Mountain subjects. Travelers on the road through Pinkham Notch could sense here the vastness of Mount Washington, which included both the bowl-shaped glacial cirque known as Tuckerman Ravine (or, as Gerry called it, Tuckerman’s Ravine) on the left and the rock formation called Lion’s Head (or Lion Head) in the center. Although the opening of the Mount Washington Carriage Road in 1861 brought an ever-greater number of tourists to this eastern notch, it remained a lonely and awe-inspiring place.
