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Presidential Range from Jefferson Highlands
John Ross Key (1837-1920)
Signed and dated lower left: John R. Key 77
Oil on canvas, 21 x 38 inches
John J. and Joan R. Henderson
Presidential Range from Jefferson Highlands was probably lot forty in John Ross Key's auction sale held in Boston on May 9 and 10, 1877, with the title "After the first Snow Storm, Mt. Washington from Jefferson Hill." Reviewing this painting at the auction preview, a critic for the Boston Evening Transcript noted the striking contrast between "the shaggy brown and green mountain side" of Mount Jefferson and the "white crown and purple robes of the monarch of mountains," Mount Washington. Key's painting emphasizes the ethereal nature of high mountains, communicating to viewers, meanings related to the spiritual values present in nature. By the 1870s, this transcendental way of viewing nature was passing out of fashion, along with topographical paintings of scenery inspired by the sublime.
