Artist: Jerome Thompson Place/date of birth: Middleboro, Massachusetts 1814 Place/date of death: Glen Gardner, New .Jersey 1886 Title: Recreation Date of completion: 1857 Materials: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 40 1/2 x 56 inches Collection: Museum purchase Accession number: 47.13 Introduction Recreation depicts a quiet gathering near Mount Mansfield in Vermont, a location not far from Burlington. Mount Mansfield is the highest of Vermont's Green Mountains and one of the state's chief tourist attractions. In the late 1850s the development of new roads and a state railroad system made the mountain and countryside around it accessible to a growing number of visitors. Casual enjoyment of the outdoors became a new pastime for Americans who could afford travel and leisure time. Discussion Although the place where this group is sitting was not a park in the official sense of the word, it was used in a manner similar to the way we use parks today. Situated not far from the city, people could go to Mount Mansfield to enjoy the outdoors without the trouble of traveling very far. The convenient location may have been an important consideration for this group, with its heavy load of picnic supplies and the somewhat formal clothing of its members. However, it is unlikely that anyone ever attended a picnic quite like this one. This painting shows an idealized image of what people liked to imagine they were doing when visiting the country: enjoying simple pleasures such as music, the company of friends, and romance in beautiful surroundings. The purifying virtue of outdoor recreation was an important theme during this period as the industrial revolution accelerated. Municipal and national parks were established in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Suburban towns became popular among people who could afford to live in them; one could work in the city while enjoying the benefits of living in the country. Looking Closely The picnickers seem to have finished their meal and are listening to flute music as they sip hot tea. The meal looks elaborate, having been served on china plates. It must have also been abundant, as one can see by the ample leftovers. A water jug and bottle of wine cool in the stream at the lower right. One couple has walked off to be alone by the water, while the others gaze at the scenery or listen to the flute player. Style Jerome Thompson is labeled by most historians as a genre painter although his skill in creating landscape settings was so great that an art critic for the New York Daily Tribune complained that his work was neither landscape with figures nor figure composition with landscape. It was by combining these two artistic areas that Thompson was able to create his idealized expressions of harmony between humankind and nature. Artist In a period when parents exerted great control over important decisions for their children, Jerome Thompson's father (a portrait painter) decided that Jerome's brother was supposed to be the artist in the family and that Jerome would inherit the family farm. Jerome Thompson worked as a sign and carriage painter and then, against his father's wishes, he decided to become a painter. Gradually he was able to save enough money to move to New York where he began his career as a portraitist but soon turned to landscape and genre scenes. After studying in England for two years, he returned to New York in 1859 to concentrate on scenes of rural life. Links to American History Curriculum
SLIDE 12
RECREATION
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