1882

Oil on Canvas, 23 1/2 x 35 1/2 in.

Loan Courtesy of the Western Reserve Historical Society

This romantic landscape depicts President Garfield's log cabin birthplace in Orange, Ohio. This cabin forms the focal point of the composition, and is set deeply into space while the rural activities of many figures, including children, take place all around. The scene is described in loving and meticulous detail by Scottish born painter James Hope, who moved to the US and became a noted portrait, landscape and historical genre painter. In his early career he worked in Canada and Vermont, and supported his wife and children by teaching at Castleton Seminary. Through sheer serendipity, hope met Hudson River school painter Frederick Church in 1849 when the latter visited Clarendon Springs, Vermont, only a few miles from Castleton, and painted views there. It was doubtless through Churches urging that Hope decided to try New York City and everything it could offer his career. He took the leap, quit his teaching job, and rented a painting studio in New York. He painted there during the winter months, returning to Castleton in the summer.

The gamble paid off because by 1854 he had hard work accepted by the National Academy of Design. He was a frequent contributor there for more than 25 years, and showed at the Brooklyn Art Association, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Boston, Detroit, Utica, Chicago, and Saint Louis.