The Mill Pond

A lover of plein air painting and bright, pure colors, Ernest Lawson is often called a “true impressionist.” He studied under American painters John Henry Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir, and spent several summers at the artists’ colony in Cos Cob, Connecticut, before living in Paris for several years. He favored the winter landscape of the Hudson River Valley, likely the location of this painting. Lawson eventually became part of the Eight, a group of New York artists who opposed the strict conservatism of the National Academy of Design.