Roche Vaud
Medium
Drawing
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Carolann Smurthwaite in memory of her mother, Caroline Atherton Connell Smurthwaite
Accession Number
1983.83.254
Tags
Art Historical Context
Roche Vaud is a drawing from 1899 by American artist George Elbert Burr, now held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum The title points to a scene in Roche, in Switzerland’s Vaud region, a tree as a notable element. Burr’s work often captured landscapes with careful attention to form and atmosphere, and this piece reflects the late-19th-century practice of using drawing to record nature’s details with immediacy and precision. As a drawing, the medium allowed Burr to explore light, texture, and composition directly, whether as a finished work or a study. Such works were valued for their inti...
About the Artist
George Elbert Burr
George Elbert Burr was an American printmaker and watercolorist whose career spanned the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, earning him a reputation as one of the foremost etchers of the American West. Born in 1859 in Monroe Falls, Ohio, Burr trained as a commercial illustrator before turning his full attention to fine art. He honed his craft through diligent self-study and close obser...