Looking upon the River

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1880

Julie Hart Beers
American, 1834–1913

In this scenic composition, Julie Hart Beers contrasted the lush vegetation of a forest in the foreground with the luminous view of a waterway and mountains beyond. She employed swift brushwork to describe the setting, including flourishes to suggest two or three figures alongside a boat at center.

Beers built a successful professional career in landscape painting beginning in the 1860s, seizing opportunities available to her—because her brothers were also painters—for training and studio space. She also connected with other female artists in New York City. In addition to income from the sale of her works, Beers supported herself and her family by teaching as well as leading sketching excursions for groups of women throughout New England and the Adirondack Mountains.

Status: On View, Gallery 170
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Julie Hart Beers
Title: Looking upon the River
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1880
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed and dated, recto, lower right, in brown paint: Julie H. Beers / 1880
Dimensions: 51.3 × 35.9 cm (20 3/16 × 14 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the bequest of Muriel J. Kogan
Reference Number: 2022.242
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/262794/manifest.json

Private collection, New York; sold to Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme, CT, by 2003 [email from Jeffery Cooley, Jan. 27, 2022, copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Dr. Douglas S. Holsclaw, Bala Cynwyd, PA, 2003 [Cooley Gallery invoice, Oct. 21, 2003, copy in curatorial object file]; consigned to Hawthorne Fine Art, New York, 2021; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2022.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.