Thomas Doughty was born in Philadelphia in 1791. and he was listed as a "painter" in the city directory by 1816. He was probably mostly self-taught, and copied European landscape pictures and made sketching trips to record details for his paintings. Doughty later came to be known as a founder of the American landscape tradition, and his paintings were recognized for their realism - he recorded some of his works as being "from nature," and others as "from recollection," or "composition[s]."

Among the earliest landscapes in the museum's collection, "The Lake of the Mountains" shows Doughty at his most ambitious and accomplished. The subject a calm wilderness in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, featuring a placid lake and a mountain that resembles Mount Washington seen through the darkness of the quiet woods. The “authenticity” of the scene is bolstered by its inclusion of two Native American figures, who are dwarfed by the wilderness around them.