Mountain and Meadow
1960
Painter, American, 1885 - 1965

Painted in 1960, at the height of Milton Avery’s career, Mountain and Meadow is one of the artist’s finest late works. The initial inspiration to depict this scene occurred in the summer of 1955, when Avery and his family stayed at the Yaddo artists’ colony near Saratoga Springs, New York. While driving near the border of Vermont and Massachusetts, they stopped for a picnic, and Avery sketched the surrounding landscape. He did not return to these sketches until five years later.
The painting’s large size, reductive forms that border on abstraction, and heightened color all reflect the influence of abstract expressionism. To an even greater extent than other examples of Avery’s monumental late works, Mountain and Meadow possesses a profound sense of serenity that shows nature at its most majestic.
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
Gift of Sally Michel Avery, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art
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Dimensions
overall: 152.4 x 172.7 cm (60 x 68 in.)
framed: 157.2 x 177.2 x 6.3 cm (61 7/8 x 69 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.) -
Accession
1991.52.1
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Copyright
© 1997 Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
More About this Artwork
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
The artist's wife, Sally Michel Avery [1902-2003], New York; gift 1991 to NGA.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1963
Milton Avery, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, 1963.
1969
Milton Avery, National Collection of Fine Arts (now Smithsonian American Art Museum), Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn Museum; Columbus (Ohio) Gallery of Fine Arts, 1969-1970, no. 110, repro.
1976
Milton Avery and the Landscape, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, 1976, no. 56, repro.
Vermont Landscape Images 1776-1976, Robert Hull Fleming Museum, Burlington, 1976, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
Milton Avery, Drawings and Paintings, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin; Summit Art Center, Summit, NJ; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, 1976-1977, unnumbered catalogue.
1977
Milton Avery Retrospective Exhibition, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL, 1977.
Milton Avery: The Late Years, Katonah Gallery, Katonah, NY, 1977.
Milton Avery: Paintings and Prints, Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS, 1977-1978.
1978
Milton Avery, The Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta; Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Alberta; Windsor Art Gallery, Ontario; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, 1978-1979, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
1981
Milton Avery: Major Paintings, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, 1981, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
Milton Avery: Major Paintings and Graphics, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr College of Art, Granville Island, Vancouver, 1981, unnumbered brochure.
1982
Milton Avery, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Fort Worth Art Museum; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; The Denver Art Museum; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1982-1983, fig. 141.
1988
Milton Avery: A Singular Vision, Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL, 1988, no. 32.
1991
Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1991, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
2001
Milton Avery: The Late Paintings, Milwaukee Art Museum; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; UCLA at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, Los Angeles, 2001-2002, pl. 46.
2016
Milton Avery's Vermont, The Bennington Museum, Vermont, 2016, pl. 53.
Bibliography
1981
Grad, Bonnie Lee. Milton Avery. Royal Oak, MI, 1981: 7, 10, pl. 48
1982
Haskell, Barbara. Milton Avery. Exh. cat. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and five other venues, 1982-1983. New York, 1982: 174, pl. 141.
2001
Hobbs, Robert Carleton. Milton Avery: The Late Paintings. New York, 2001: 30, 93, plate 46, 105.
Inscriptions
lower left: Milton Avery 1960
Wikidata ID
Q20195489