Lake Maggiore, May 11,1869: Village and Landscape (recto, from Sketchbook) 1869

Jervis McEntee made this graphite drawing, Lake Maggiore, May 11, 1869: Village and Landscape, on a page torn from a sketchbook. McEntee, an American artist, was part of a rising class of landscape painters who saw the genre as a vehicle for expressing spiritual and emotional experiences, as well as political dimensions. Painted during the height of the American expatriate movement, McEntee's delicate rendering of an Italian village reflects a broader cultural fascination with European scenery, particularly among upper-class Americans seeking refinement and historical grounding. The sketchbook format underscores its function as a personal and portable encounter with the sublime. One might ask, what does it mean for an American artist to find inspiration in the Old World? Was this an act of cultural enrichment, or a commentary on the developing artistic institutions back home? By consulting period travelogues, exhibition catalogues, and artists’ biographies, we can discover the social networks and aesthetic debates that shaped McEntee’s vision and the role of landscape art in defining national and personal identities.