Chestnut Tree

This painting by Francis Lee Jaques is of the chestnut tree. The tree, once a dominant species in the forests of the eastern United States, has been decimated by a blight. The chestnut has escaped extinction only because its root system is unaffected by the blight. Once sprouted though, the tree succombs to the disease. Jaques' painting depicts the chestnut standing tall on top of a slope of grass and rock and uses blocks of color to form the ground and sky. The sky is broad with saturated swaths of blue.

This painting is one of over 3,000 small-scale watercolors commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation and used for their conservation stamps. The stamps were produced from around the 1930s-1990s to promote the mission and work of the National Wildlife Federation.