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Study of Trees

Joseph Frank Currier

American Art

Joseph Frank Currier’s deep love of nature made him a committed pleinairist who regularly sketched outdoors, seeking to document nature’s shifting moods. Each of these studies conveys an overall impression of the landscape rather than botanically specific detail. Currier captured the billowing canopies of trees with broad tonal masses made with rubbings and smudges of charcoal. He used the tip of the stick to articulate branches and other forms in dark lines. The expressive execution endows the natural world with a sense of dynamism, as if the trees are possessed of an inner life.
MEDIUM Charcoal on paper
DATES ca. 1880
DIMENSIONS sheet: 4 3/8 x 6 15/16 in. (11.1 x 17.6 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Unsigned
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 31.202.1
CREDIT LINE Gift of Mrs. John White Alexander
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Studies of beach trees from artist's sketchbook
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Joseph Frank Currier (American, 1843–1909). Study of Trees, ca. 1880. Charcoal on paper, sheet: 4 3/8 x 6 15/16 in. (11.1 x 17.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. John White Alexander, 31.202.1 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 31.202.1_PS3.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 31.202.1_PS3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2011
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