Chill December

Frances Gearhart's Chill December conveys the grandeur of immense snow-capped mountain peaks flanking a narrow valley. The composition's relatively low vantage point further emphasizes the steep verticality of the mountains. The unprinted white of the paper appears as pure snow, while a variety of colors, from muted earth tones to delicate pale blues and yellows, describe the landforms, the water of the lake, and the sky. The lighter tints on the most distant mountains evoke the effect of oblique sunrays, while a pale veil of yellow suggests the golden light of sunrise or sunset. Like many of Gearhart's numerous landscape images inspired by her adopted state, such as Above the Trail (TF 1996.21), this majestic winter landscape scene presents an ideal California of unspoiled natural purity, an image of the state in national circulation in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Gearhart was one of many American printmakers of her era who were inspired by the techniques of Japanese color woodcut prints. In this work, for example, she printed the key block in blue, rather than black, to complement the scene's atmospheric color harmonies. In contrast to Bertha Lum's somewhat fantastic Japanese-inspired images (TF 1996.37, TF 1996.38) and Helen Hyde's woodcut transcriptions of exotic eastern scenes (TF 1996.24, TF 1996.25, TF 1996.27), Gearhart glorified California's spectacular natural beauty using a decorative naturalism.

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

Le Japonisme en Amérique: oeuvres sur papier, 1880–1930 (Japonisme in America: Works on Paper, 1880–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, September 15–November 30, 2002.

Manifest Destiny, Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois and Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venue: Loyola University Museum of Art, May 17–August 10, 2008. [exh. cat.]

Dailey, Victoria. Frances H. Gearhart: California Block Prints. (exh. cat., Cheney Cowles Museum). Spokane, Washington: Cheney Cowles Museum, 1990. Text p. 18, cat. 7, p. 19.

Brownlee, Peter John. Manifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. (exh. cat., Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art and Loyola University Museum of Art, 2008. Text p. 35 (checklist).