Landscapes by Frank Weston Benson are one of the types of art work made by Frank Weston Benson. He also made portraits, waterscapes, wildlife, interiors and other works of art.
In 1888 Benson married Ellen Perry Peirson. Together they had four children: Eleanor (born 1890), George (born 1891), Elisabeth (born 1892) and Sylvia (born 1898). The Benson family spent 7 summers starting in 1893 in Newcastle, New Hampshire. Starting 1901 the Benson family stayed at Wooster Farm on New Haven Island on Penobscot Bay in Maine and in 1906 they bought the property.[1] Benson enjoyed creating idyllic paintings of his family out of doors at their summer home in New Haven, Maine. One daughter noted that "Papa would often have us put on our best white dresses and then ask us to sit in the grass or play in the woods. We thought it was so silly and the maids made such a fuss when they saw the clothes afterwards."[2]
Just at the turn of the century, Benson made Impressionist paintings of his children, Eleanor, Elisabeth, George and Sylvia at their summer home on New Haven Island in Maine. His work was well received by critics and collectors and won awards. Benson, eager to paint his children on sunny days, often asked his daughters to don their best white dresses and sit in the grass or play in the woods.
Between 1890 and 1898 Benson produced many en plein air landscape and seascape paintings of New Hampshire, including the Mount Monadnock, New Castle and Portsmouth regions.[3]
| Title | Image | Medium | Year | Collection | Comments and SIRIS ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landscape | 1890–1898 | ||||
| Mount Monadnock | oil on canvas | c. 1890 | 24 in x 30 in (61 cm x 76.2 cm) Scene: Mount Monadnock, NH. | ||
| Mount Monadnock | oil on canvas | c. 1890 | 16 in x 20 in (40.6 cm x 50.8 cm) Scene: Mount Monadnock, NH. SIRIS Control Number 89170057 | ||
| View in Mexico near Santiago | Online image[4] | oil on canvas | 1898 | 5.5 in x 10 in (14 cm x 25.4 cm) | |
| Benson Family at Wooster Farm | 1901 | Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI | 24.9 in x 29.9 in (63.2 cm x 75.9 cm). Scene: artist's family at Wooster Farm, North Haven, ME. | ||
| Evening Light | oil on canvas | 1908 | Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH | 25.3 in x 30.5 in (64.3 cm x 77.5 cm) Benson's wife, Ellen, and four children walk across a meadow in the painting Evening Light. Eleanor waits on the left for her mother and other children to walk towards her. George has a fishing pole carried over his shoulder.[5] SIRIS Control Number 89170043 | |
| The House at North Haven (or Wooster Farm) (or The Farm at North Haven) | Online image[6] | 1912 | 30.5 in x 49 in (77.5 cm x 124.5 cm) Scene: white farmhouse nestled in trees in middle-ground with seascape in distance. SIRIS Control Number 89170067 | ||
| The High Carry | etching/prints | 1915 | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA | 9.9 in x 7.9 in (25.1 cm x 20.1 cm). Scene: 3 figures traveling in mountainous landscape; one figure is porting canoe. | |
| The Hillside (or Reading in Sun and Shade) | oil on canvas | 1921 | 25.1 in x 30.3 in (63.8 cm x 77 cm). Scene: landscape near coast with female figure reclining on grassy hillside, pink parasol held over her head as she reads; overhead are billowy clouds in clear blue sky; on left, glimpse of ocean. SIRIS Control Number 82190634 | ||
| River Scene | oil on canvas | 1921 | Scene: river winds through countryside. | ||
| Cedars | watercolor, brush and blue | c. 1921 | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA | 14.9 in x 21.6 in (37.8 cm x 54.9 cm) | |
| Through the Willows | 1922 | ||||
| Iris and Lilies | watercolor on paper | 1922 | 14.1 in x 20.6 in (35.8 cm x 52.3 cm) Scene: close-up of still pond water with lily pads and irises. Ellen, Benson's wife, planted water lilies and iris in a pond behind their summer home, Wooster Farm on North Haven Island, Maine, which was a frequent subject in Benson's paintings.[7] SIRIS Control Number 8A730023 | ||
| Meadows in Winter | watercolor on paper | 1922 | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA | 13.8 in x 19.7 in (35.1 cm x 50 cm) Scene: winter landscape with patches of tall grass poking through snow-covered meadow and small stream winding into distance. SIRIS Control Number 20493114 | |
| Through the Willows | watercolor over graphite on paper | 1922 | Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL | 16.2 in x 20.2 in (41.1 cm x 51.3 cm) | |
| The Bridge | Online image[8] | drypoint etching on copper plate/print | 1923 | Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA; Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA | 13.6 in x 10.7 in (34.5 cm x 27.2 cm) |
| Snowladen Spruce (or Snow-laden Spruce) | Online image[9] | watercolor on paper | 1927 | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA | 20.1 in x 25.1 in (51.1 cm x 63.8 cm) Scene: snowscape. SIRIS Control Number 89170040 |
| Wooster Farm | Online image[10] | watercolor on paper | 1927 | 15 in x 21.5 in (38.1 cm x 54.6 cm). Scene: close-up of front of house (artist's summer residence, North Haven, Maine) with bench's back facing viewer; trees at right. SIRIS Control Number 89170061 | |
| Dublin Woods | Online image[11] | oil on canvas | 1931 | 20 in x 17.9 in (50.8 cm x 45.5 cm) | |
| Willow Trunks | watercolor, brush and blue | 1933 | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA | 20.1 in x 24.9 in (51.1 cm x 63.2 cm) | |
| Woman in White Gazing over a Cliffside | Online image[12] | oil on canvas | 17 in x 13 in (43.2 cm x 33 cm) Scene: small female figure in cliffside landscape. | ||
| Amphitheater in the Park | Online image[13] | watercolor on paper | 6.3 in x 9 in (16 cm x 22.9 cm) | ||
| Mountain Sleet | drypoint etching/print | 9.5 in x 11.7 in (24.1 cm x 29.7 cm) | |||
| Six Blue Hills | drypoint etching/print | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA | |||
| Young Girl Picking Flowers at Springtime | Online image[14] | oil on board | |||