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Monadnock Paintings

         A number of famous artists, including William Preston Phelps, Abbott Thayer and Rockwell Kent painted Monadnock and their work hangs in museums around the world. This page will feature paintings of Monadnock, but the photos here are only an approximation of what the real painting is like. If you get a chance, it's worthwhile to track down the original.

Abbott Thayer: Monadnock Angel. Painted in 1919, this was one of Thayer's final paintings and is the only painting to bring together two of the major themes of his life, angels and Mount Monadnock. It was painted after he had spent over five years fighting to save the north side of the mountain from developers. Most experts agree that it depicts Monadnock being protected by the angel. It is owned by the art museum at Andover Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where it was donated by an anonymous donor. It is currently in storage and has not been on display for some time.

William Preston Phelps: Monadnock in Springtime No one is really sure how many times Phelps painted Monadnock, but nearly 100 of them have been located. Many more are probably still in private homes. Most of his paintings are of Monadnock in the winter, so this is an exception. He painted Monadnock while standing outside in a horse-drawn wagon that served as his shelter. The location of this painting seems to be from the north, across Dublin Lake.

Charles Curtis Allen: Mount Monadnock This painting was purchased by the Monadnock Mountain Association (The Woodshed Gang) from the artist in 1915 and for many years it was displayed in the Halfway House. When the association disbanded in the late 1920s, the painting was donated to the Fitzwilliam Library, which saved it from being destroyed when the Halfway House burned down. Today it hangs in the library above the fireplace.

Amos Dolbear: Monadnock from Stone Pond (1860) Before photography was widely available, traveling artists sketched drawings of landscapes that were published as lithographs. This picture shows the sides of Monadnock when they were still mostly sheep meadows, before the trees were allowed to fill in.

Charles T. Jackson: Mount Monadnock from Jaffrey (1840) This lithograph is from Jackson's book, The Geology f New Hampshire, and is thought to be the first published picture of Monadnock.

William Preston Phelps: Mount Monadnock  For many years this painting of Monadnock at dawn from the north side was displayed in a bank in Jaffrey. It was later donated to the Historical Society of Cheshire County, where it is on display today.

Rockwell Kent: Monadnock Afternoon  Kent was a student of Abbott Thayer who spent a night in Pumpelly Cave with Thayer's son. In his memoirs, Kent wrote that Thayer taught him the that edge where the mountain met the sky had to be painted as sharply as possible. The painting, now displayed at the Fitchburg Museum of Art, shows that Kent used his palette knife to create this line.

Abbott Thayer: Monadnock Number 2 (1912) During the last years of his life, Thayer painted Monadnock obsessively, painting over his canvases again and again in an effort to capture the mountain's mysteries.

Abbott Thayer: Mount Monadnock  Another of Thayer's paintings of the mountain.

Donna Allen: Monadnock Reflections in Perkins Pond (2007) This rendering of one of the most popular views of Monadnock was done in pastels and was purchased by the author of Monadnock: More than a Mountain to be used as the frontispiece of the book. Allen lives in Fitzwilliam.