Spanish Peaks, Southern Colorado, Late Afternoon

Spanish Peaks, Southern Colorado, Late Afternoon

Samuel Colman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Several dated works by Colman, a New Yorker, suggest that he made his first visit to the frontier in 1870, additional trips in 1871, 1886, and 1888, and a later journey sometime between 1895 and 1905. Unlike his earlier, more documentary accounts of pioneers and wagon trains, this canvas reflects the stylistic influence on Colman of the French Barbizon painters, who preferred to evoke mood with generalized forms and subtle color and tones. In a letter, Colman noted having juxtaposed here “masses of limestone rocks . . . which appear like the towers of a castle or fortress” in the middle distance with the Spanish Peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains beyond.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Spanish Peaks, Southern Colorado, Late AfternoonSpanish Peaks, Southern Colorado, Late AfternoonSpanish Peaks, Southern Colorado, Late AfternoonSpanish Peaks, Southern Colorado, Late AfternoonSpanish Peaks, Southern Colorado, Late Afternoon

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.