Cherry Lake, White Mountains 1859

Aaron Draper Shattuck captured this landscape, "Cherry Lake, White Mountains," using graphite on paper. It is the most direct of artistic mediums: a metal, mined from the earth, dragged across a processed cellulose surface. The pressure and rhythm of Shattuck's hand, guided by his eye, and the material qualities of the paper, combine to bring forth this scene. You can almost feel the stillness of the water, the solidity of the trees, and the vastness of the landscape, simply through the variations in line and tone that Shattuck created. The marks are relatively light, even tentative, but they build to a convincing representation of a specific place. Although unassuming in its materiality, the drawing exemplifies the power of simple means to create something deeply evocative. It reminds us that artistic expression can arise from the humblest of resources, transforming the everyday into something extraordinary.