Summer Twilight

Painter Edward Mitchell Bannister found much of the inspiration for his paintings in the seascapes and landscapes of New England. He maintained a keen interest in the French Barbizon School and in the work of artist Jean-Fran�ois Millet. Accordingly, Bannister was known for using a tonalism style (which emphasizes mood and shadow) in the rendering of his pastoral scenes. His technique often involved building up the surface of his works through heavy, dense brush strokes in what was often deemed Impressionist style painting. Bannister?s preference for landscapes adorned with trees and rolling hills as seen here in Streamside (1870), Landscape (1897) and Summer Twilight (1899) recalls the 19th-century tradition of the Hudson River School, whose oeuvre captured the sprawling vastness of America?s natural terrain.