Jervis McEntee; Sugar Maple; 1859; graphite on off-white wove paper; 14 7/8 in. x 10 13/16 in. (37.8 cm. x 27.46 cm.); Jervis McEntee disliked painting 'what is known as 'a fine view.'' A student of landscape artist Frederic Church and an academician at New York's prestigious National Academy of Design; McEntee preferred to paint 'my impression of a simple scene in Nature. That which has been suggested is more interesting than that which has been copied. The copying that an artist does should appear in a study rather than in a picture proper.' A comparison of McEntee's graphite study of a maple tree with his finished painting reveals how he transformed a detailed study into an atmospheric autumnal scene. The artist completed this painting in the fall of 1861 after three months of service in the Union Army. While the setting for this painting is not known; its dark sky suggests the sense of melancholy that pervaded the nation at this time.