Monterey Oak c. 1935 - 1943

Alberte Spratt made this lithograph titled 'Monterey Oak' sometime in the first half of the 20th century. It depicts a gnarled oak in striking detail. Spratt’s choice of subject matter encourages us to consider the cultural and institutional history of landscape art. The Monterey oak is endemic to the central coast of California, inviting us to consider how the specificity of place interacts with landscape as a genre. While landscape painting has often been associated with conservative artistic institutions, here the artist gives the tradition a progressive twist. She focuses on the beauty of a native species rather than an imported ideal. To fully understand the image, one might research the history of landscape art in California and the development of environmental consciousness in the twentieth century. This lithograph asks us to consider the social and political meanings that can be embedded in seemingly straightforward depictions of nature.