Deer's Leap, Lake George

 

James David Smillie

  1833 - 1909 (biography)

1883 /printed 1911 

etching and mezzotint 

6 1/2 x 4 3/8" platemark 

signature inscribed in the plate, center right 

posthumous proof; total edition size not stated 

see notes below 

Witthoft 30; ill p. 125 

cream wove tissue 

iii/iii 

state i/iii published in American Etchings, 1882 

BC027 

$700.00 

A posthumously printed impression of a mezzotint-rich image depicting a view of Lake George as seen from above, through the branches of pine trees in Deer's Leap. Created by Smillie in 1883 after several sketches taken from trips to the lake in New York, this image went through three states before he finally applied a moody darkness to the sky, "showing evening effect" (noted by the artist in his diary).

This impression is from 1911, two years after the Smillie's death, printed by Robert J. Hulse. The artist's original inscriptions in the plate are mostly hidden by the addition of heavy foliage from the second state (as noted by Smillie: "Leaves added to the tree on left... Signature nearly obliterated"). The inscriptions include: date after signature in the plate; titled "Lake George from Deer's Leap" in plate, upper right; inscribed "Op. 27" in plate, lower right; pencil annotated "Robt. J. Hulse, March 24, 1911" along lower left sheet edge.

While Smillie frequently used mezzotint in his prints, rarely was one so heavily imbued with the velvety softness of the medium as "Deer's Leap...". It appears that Smillie took great care in portraying this landscape, admiring the light that penetrated the damp gloom to illuminate branches, rocks, and the long body of water - studded by islands and spits - as is stretched out below him.