In the Beech Wood (In the Woods)

Inscriptions

Signed and inscribed, on reverse: In The Beech Wood / Geo C Lambdin. Several exhibition labels on reverse, see exhibition screen

Label

Like many genre painters of his time, George Cochran Lambdin referred to the Civil War by focusing on soldiers at rest or at home with their families rather than in combat. Lambdin painted four genre scenes that follow a recruit—believed to represent the artist’s brother Harry—from his departure from home to scenes of him at military encampments, sitting alone and deep in thought (the artist reportedly traveled to Virginia to visit his brother on the front). Completed in 1864, In the Beech Wood is the first in the series and addresses the then-common theme of separation from loved ones. Here, a young woman and her beloved meet in a forest, where he carves their initials into a tree. Winslow Homer painted a related work, The Initials, the same year. Although it is not certain which came first, Homer’s painting may conclude the narrative suggested in Lambdin’s composition. In Homer’s version, a young woman, alone in the woods, is either pining for or mourning the loss of her beloved as she retraces the initials carved in a tree by her departed lover.

From the 2019 exhibition American Art, Colonial to Modern, curated by Barbara J. MacAdam, Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art

Course History

WRIT 7 , Religion and Literature: Re-visioning the Natural, Nancy Crumbine, Spring 2015

Exhibition History

American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 9-December 9, 2007.

American Art, Colonial to Modern, Israel Sack Gallery and Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-September 12, 2021.

Bold Cautious True: Walt Whitman and American Art of the Civil War Era, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, June 2-August 26, 2012.

Bold, Cautious, True: Walt Whitman and the American Art of the Civil War Era, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee, July 5-October 4, 2009; Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York, October 26, 2009-January 24, 2010.

Completing the Picture: Hats, Fashion, and Fine Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 28-September 24, 2000.

Domestic Bliss: Family Life in American Painting 1840-1910, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York, 1986.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 24, 2001-June 2, 2003.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 23, 1997-October 22, 1998.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 7, 2010-January 3, 2012.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 16, 1999-February 28, 2000.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 21, 1992-November 16, 1993.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 26, 1996-May 11, 1997.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 15, 2005-May 8, 2007.

John Hopkins University, Peabody Institute, Gallery of Art, No. 32 In the Woods, October 1910.

Life in 19th Century American, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, 1981.

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1864.

Publication History

David M. Sokol, Life in 19th Century American, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, 1981, p. 27, ill. p. 22.

Lee M. Edwards, Domestic Bliss: Family Life in American Paiting, 1840-1910, The Hudson River Museum, 1986, p. 79, illustrated p. 78.

Young America or: nineteenth century American life faithfully portrayed and reflected in nineteenth century American Paintings, The Kennedy Quarterly, Volv. V., no. 4, August 1965, p. 279, no. 273.

List of Works of Art in the Collection of the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, 1949, p. 14.

Peabody Institute Gallery of Art, List of Works of Art on Exhibition, Baltimore, Maryland, Octobert 1910, p. 21, no. 321.

"Philadelphia Art Notes", The Round Table, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1864.

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 53, no. 32.

Kevin Sharp, Bold Cautious True: Walt Whitman and American Art of the Civil War Era, Memphis, Tennessee: The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 2009, ill. p. 57, cat. no. 30.

Allen C. Abend, Maryland's Treasure & Burden: Baltimore's Peabody Institute Art Collection, 2018, Blurb, p. 86

John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 62, ill. fig. 9.3.

Provenance

Collection of Robert M. Olyphant (1824-1918), 1864-1877; John W. McCoy (1821-1889), Baltimore, Maryland, possibly 1877 to 1890 or 1908; given to The Peabody Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, 1890 or 1908-1964; sold to Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, 1964; sold to present collection, 1988.

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