Lake Squam from Red Hill 1874

William Trost Richards captured Lake Squam from Red Hill with watercolor and graphite on paper. He was part of the Hudson River School, a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by landscape painters. His art came from the Romantic era, where artists sought to express emotional responses to nature. With industrialization changing landscapes, many felt a longing for untouched nature, and this is often reflected in idealized paintings that exclude signs of human impact. Richards paints nature as sublime and beautiful, and while his work highlights the aesthetic value of these landscapes, it could be argued that they lack an acknowledgement of indigenous histories and displacement. The painting invites us to consider our relationship with nature and our role in its preservation, while prompting reflection on whose stories are told and whose are left out of the frame.