River Scene (from McGuire Scrapbook)

Doughty’s interpretation of the American landscape was primarily pastoral and picturesque, evoking the lyrical, quiet moods of nature. This graphite drawing exhibits his characteristic approach to landscape composition. At the center of the sheet is a graceful bridge with two tall Romanesque arches spanning a narrow river that widens toward the viewer. Trees on the riverbank flank the bridge, whose arches are echoed in the background by a pair of tall mountain peaks silhouetted against billowing cumulus clouds. The generalized treatment of foliage, piling up of mountains and clouds, and formulaic contrast of pastoral and wilderness motifs strongly suggest that the image was not drawn from nature, but was largely contrived from the vocabulary of the picturesque.