View of Calypso Island

German-born Gustav Grunewald studied in Dresden under the leader of the German Romantic painters, Caspar David Friedrich, during the 1820s. Throughout his life, Grunewald utilized Friedrich's technique of making elaborate, detailed reference studies en plein air, then completing the finished painting in the studio. Grunewald traveled throughout Eastern Pennsylvania and beyond making studies, often travelling to the Pocono Mountains or even as far as Niagara Falls. However, the cool greenness of Calypso Island, in the Lehigh River just above Bethlehem, continued to be one of his favorite subjects.