York, Maine 1882

Willard Metcalf painted "York, Maine" in 1884, recording the landscape in watercolor. The image evokes the American landscape painting tradition, yet its seeming simplicity obscures the art market forces at work. Metcalf received academic training in Boston and Paris, and he marketed himself as an accomplished figure painter. Yet, like many artists of his era, he sustained his practice through the sale of inexpensive landscapes. This one, though, lacks the grandeur of many of its predecessors. Instead, it presents an unassuming vista with muted tones. The landscape genre in the United States developed alongside the ideology of Manifest Destiny, representing the vast potential of the continent to be settled and developed. However, by the 1880s, the frontier had officially closed, and artists turned to scenes of everyday life. This artistic shift reflected a changing society adapting to the realities of industrialization. Understanding Metcalf's picture benefits from studying the economic and cultural shifts of the late nineteenth century and the strategies artists used to navigate them.