The Blue Ridge Mountains

Sonntag executed early landscape paintings in the 1840s and 1850s during trips from Cincinnati to the Ohio River valley, Kentucky and West Virginia. He traveled to Europe, then returned to the US, where he settled in New York City and became known for his romantic American and Italian landscapes. This image likely shows the first, northernmost extension of the Blue Ridge: South Mountain and its associated ridges. An old mill or home appears at the center of the image.