The Artful Sleuth

It was a dark and somber painting. That much was clear but, unlike the other four works already discussed that morning in Professor Robert McGrath and Hood Curator Barbara MacAdam's art history seminar, this one was a mystery, unsigned, undated, unknown except for its title, "Profile Lake and Old Man in the Mountain."

For Frances Maclntyre, the only graduate student in the class, this was a chance to turn a keen eye for art into a private eye, to do some real sleuthing. Before the presentation, she and Professor McGrath compared the painting to several others of the White Mountains in an attempt to identify the painter. They looked for telltale techniques and dated images. By the time Maclntyre came to class armed with several oversized art volumes, they had narrowed the field substantially to 24 possible artists.

Standing beside the painting, Maclntyre updates the class on her search. She points out an important identification element, the painting lacks a crucial convention of early representations of the White Mountains, the presence of humans. Directing attention to the upper right-hand portion of the painting, she notes that the only "human" presence is the craggy outcropping of the Old Man in the Mountains.

Maclntyre wonders aloud if this could be the work of Thomas Doughty,'although she admits that his other paintings include human figures. Galling attention to the crackled paint, the style of brushwork used to create the dramatic trees, she continues with her list of possibilities — Henry Inman, Charles Codman, Joshua Shaw, Alvan Fisher-before inviting the class to offer insights gained from their firsthand acquaintance with the works of these and other artists of the White Mountains.

McGrath jumps in, noting that one of Doughty's signature strategies was to take views and juggle them around. He did this in the Franconia region especially, redeploying features of the landscape into new configurations. The professor, who knows the region intimately, is certain that the unidentified painting took some license with geographical reality.

His colleague MacAdam retrieves a known work by Doughty from the museum storeroom so the class can look at the two paintings side by side. Sure enough, a small figure can be seen in the Doughty. Moreover, the foliage is painted more precisely. MacAdam goes back for an Alvan Fisher, and the class edges closer to the paintings to compare all three. Students and professors alike scrutinize the details. They examine the painting under ultraviolet light to search for a hidden signature or for signs of retouching.

But the painting is unyielding. At the end of the class, the mystery remains intact. Student Barnett Silver 89 asks with a laugh "What are the chances this was painted by some unknown?" McGrath replies prophetically: "Getting better all the time!"