Brook in Spring
Oil
canvas, painting
William Merritt Post (1856-1935) achieved a substantial measure of success as a painter in New York in the last quarter of the 19th century. Recognized by his fellow artists as a painter of stature, he was elected a member of the nation’s then leading arts organizations, including the National Academy of Design, the Salmagundi Club, and the Artist’s Fund, which he served as an officer. He was a resident of several of New York’s studio buildings, where commerce and sociability joined in the artists’ work places, and he regularly exhibited in important exhibitions in cities across the nation, including Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. His work won prizes and was published in the new art journals. He was one of the nation’s accomplished Tonalist painters, creating nostalgic images of rural America while the nation was being transformed into an urban power.
In 1908, Post began to spend his summers in Bethlehem, Connecticut, and in 1911 he and his wife and young daughter moved to the Connecticut countryside year round, purchasing a home in West Morris. Like many New Yorkers then and now, they bought an old farmhouse, named Applewood, and spent the next two decades restoring it and working in the garden.
In 1908, Post began to spend his summers in Bethlehem, Connecticut, and in 1911 he and his wife and young daughter moved to the Connecticut countryside year round, purchasing a home in West Morris. Like many New Yorkers then and now, they bought an old farmhouse, named Applewood, and spent the next two decades restoring it and working in the garden.
Museum Purchase. The Acquisition Fund, 1967
67.10