A Woman Painting a View of the Shenandoah Valley from the Skyline Drive, Near an Entrance to the Appalachian Trail, Virginia
Artist
Jack Delano
(American, 1914 - 1997)
CultureAmerican
Dateca. 1940, printed 1981-1984
MediumDye transfer print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 7 × 10 in. (17.8 × 25.4 cm)
Overall, Paper: 10 × 13 1/16 in. (25.4 × 33.2 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 × 15 15/16 in. (50.8 × 40.5 cm)
Overall, Paper: 10 × 13 1/16 in. (25.4 × 33.2 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 × 15 15/16 in. (50.8 × 40.5 cm)
InscribedUnsigned.
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number84.421
On View
Not on viewLabel Textbottom Jack Delano American, 1914–1997 A Woman Painting a View of the Shenandoah Valley from the Skyline Drive, Near an Entrance to the Appalachian Trail, Virginia, ca. 1940 Dye transfer print (photograph), printed 1981–84 Museum purchase 84.421 To this day photographers flock to the countryside in search of picturesque scenes. The belief that nature offers unlimited views awaiting discovery, however, grew along with the rise of photography and landscape painting. The Forest of Fontainebleau, about 40 miles south of Paris, became a destination for painters seeking unspoiled vistas in the late 1800s, and romantic photographs by artists like Charles Famin (above) helped shape their expectations. Decades later, while chronicling American scenery for the federal government, Jack Delano included this image (below) of a landscape painter in a series on Virginia’s farmland and countryside, suggesting that painting had shaped the documentary photographer’s own way of seeing the land. Exhibition History"New Light on Land: Photographs from the Chrysler Collection," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 28 - May 15, 2016.
