Artist: Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823–1900)
Title: Greenwood Lake
Description: English: Greenwood Lake by Jasper Francis Cropsey
Date: 1879
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: height: 60.3 cm (23.7 in); width: 110.5 cm (43.5 in)
Collection: Private collection
What I love about this painting:
Jasper Francis Cropsey loved the wild beauty of Greenwood Lake as it was in his day. I suspect he wouldn’t feel quite the same about it nowadays, since it is definitely a summer destination for modern vacationers. He found his muse in the rural beauty there.
Autumn seems to have been a favorite time of year for him. Each autumn, he made numerous paintings from his favorite spots along the shore and in the area. This painting was made just as warm September drifted toward the cold months of October and November. The deciduous trees are dressed in shades of red and gold.
Two men walk along the dirt lane that runs beside a meadow. Perhaps they are just going from one place to another, or maybe they are hunters. If so, they are returning empty-handed.
Cattle graze and gossip in the distance, as cows often do. A dog (perhaps the farm dog?) has stopped in the middle of the road to bark his greeting to the men.
I understand why Cropsey painted this scene many times from different angles. In my opinion, the end of September is the best part of autumn in the north. Soon, the beautiful colors will fade, falling to the ground and turning soggy and brown, marking the end of the annual cycle. But now, this day, Cropsey’s world is at peace, the air is crisp, and the leaves are at that wonderful stage that pleases the eye and makes one glad to be alive.
About the Artist, via Wikipedia:
Jasper Francis Cropsey (February 18, 1823 – June 22, 1900) was an American architect and artist. He is best known for his Hudson River School landscape paintings.
Cropsey trained as an architect under the tuition of Joseph Trench in the early 1840s, a period in which he was also trained in watercolor painting, instructed by Edward Maury, and took some life drawing courses at the National Academy of Design. He set up his own architecture office in 1843, but began exhibiting his watercolors at the National Academy of Design in 1844. A year later he was elected an associate member and turned exclusively to landscape painting; shortly after he was featured in an exhibition entitled “Italian Compositions”.[1]
To learn more about Jasper Francis Cropsey, go to Jasper Francis Cropsey – Wikipedia.
About the scenery in this painting via Wikipedia:
Greenwood Lake is an interstate lake approximately seven miles (11 km) long, straddling the border of New York and New Jersey. It is located in the Town of Warwick and the Village of Greenwood Lake, New York (in Orange County) and West Milford, New Jersey (in Passaic County). It is the source of the Wanaque River.
Jasper Francis Cropsey created several paintings of Greenwood Lake beginning in 1843. Cropsey painted many paintings of the area such as American Harvesting (1864), Greenwood Lake (1870), Fisherman’s House, Greenwood Lake (1877), and Cooley Homestead–Greenwood Lake (1886). Cropsey met and married Maria Cooley, daughter of Issac P. Cooley, in 1847 and continued to visit the area for many years.
Some of Cropsey’s painting command high prices at auctions. Greenwood Lake (1879) sold at Christie’s auction in 2012 for $422,500. Sunset, Camel’s Hump, Lake Champlain (1877) sold for $314,500 in 2011. [2]
Credits and Attributions:
IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Greenwood Lake by Jasper Francis Cropsey, 1879.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Greenwood_Lake_by_Jasper_Francis_Cropsey,_1879.jpg&oldid=617153620 (accessed September 4, 2025).
[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Jasper Francis Cropsey,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jasper_Francis_Cropsey&oldid=1309347669 (accessed September 4, 2025).
[2] Wikipedia contributors, “Greenwood Lake,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greenwood_Lake&oldid=1300748871 (accessed September 4, 2025).
Life in the Realm of Fantasy 