Description
(Museum Edition – 30″ x 60″ – 99 S/N and 33 AP – $2495 U.S.)
(Renaissance Edition – 24″ x 40″ – 180 S/N and 40 AP – $1095 U.S.)
“The term ‘hardwood forest’ is the old-fashioned short form for northeastern North American mixed deciduous forest. For most of my life, when I went out into the woods, it was into this type of woods. I went often, and it was a sheer delight in any season. Unlike any other type of forest in the world, this one has striking seasonal variety – rich, leafy green in summer; vibrant red, yellow and orange in autumn; stark and snowy in winter and a lavish carpet of flowers in the spring. The three colourful seasons are so glorious that I find them easy to enjoy but hard to paint. My taste runs to muted colours as a general (but not invariable rule). This scene depicts a wet day in November, depressing to many people but wonderful to me. The sueded gray bark of the beeches has been stained to a rich, dark colour by the rain but you can see their bleached leaves clinging to the twigs like fluttering Japanese prayer papers. The bark of the maples and oaks is almost indistinguishable except to a naturalist or forester. Their young saplings indicate that this is a climax community, a stable family of trees which can maintain and perpetuate itself for generations if allowed to do so. This is not the case with the birch trees, which cannot grow in their parent’s shade. The white-tailed deer buck is in his prime. He is looking for does with which to mate or other bucks with which to fight. He is very cautious because this is hunting season.”
Robert Bateman
