The Birches of the Catskills

Worthington Whittredge, born Springfield, OH 1820-died Summit, NJ 1910 · ca. 1875

Worthington Whittredge found it difficult to adjust to painting the New England landscape after almost ten years abroad. He described the forests as “a mass of decaying logs and tangled brush wood” that were completely different from the “well-ordered” European views he was used to. (The Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge, 1942, reprinted in Janson, Worthington Whittredge, 1989) The broad brushstrokes of The Birches of the Catskills suggest that Whittredge painted the small canvas on the spot. The disordered view of tall trees, fallen branches, and undergrowth emphasizes the untamed quality that had initially unsettled the artist.