Road through the Woods, ca 1903
ca. 1903
19th Century
11 1/2 in. x 15 1/2 in. (292.1 mm. x 393.7 mm.)
William Henry Howe,
American,
(November 22, 1846–March 16, 1929)
Medium and Support:
oil on panel
Credit Line:
Florence Griswold Museum
Accession Number:
1971.15
A landscape painting showing a dirt road running through a thick green woodland. It is inscribed, "To My Friend Mrs. Bill."
William Henry Howe usually treated landscape as a background for his preferred subject, cows. Here, he makes a lush forest scene divided by a dirt road the subject of his picture, emphasizing the foliage, blended brushwork, and rich colors usually associated with Tonalist painters such as Henry Ward Ranger.
Although the painting does not depict “Howe’s cows,” it is inscribed at the lower left “To my friend Mrs. Bill.” Mrs. Bill is likely Mary A. Bill, who, along wither her husband Kansas Nebraska Bill, occupied Ashlawn Farm in Lyme and raised prize Devon cattle. It seems possible that Howe knew Mrs. Bill from having sought out bovine models to paint on her farm.