Study of Maple Grove, Greensboro, Vermont

About this artwork

Research in Progress

Art Historical Context

Samuel Colman’s “Study of Maple Grove, Greensboro, Vermont” captures a quiet woodland scene in northern New England on August 26, 1916. Created when the artist was eighty-four, the work reflects his lifelong fascination with the American landscape. As a member of the generation that helped define a distinctly national vision of nature, Colman often sought out rural locales that embodied seasonal change and regional character. Although the medium remains unidentified, the title’s reference to a “study” suggests an on-site exploration, possibly a preparatory sketch or finished plein-air piece. Such works allowed artists of Colman’s era to record light, color, and atmosphere directly from observation before developing larger studio paintings. Now part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection, the piece entered the institution as a gift from the artist’s wife, preserving an intimate record of his late-career travels. Its presence underscores the museum’s commitment to documenting how American painters interpreted the country’s natural beauty across the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.