From the Mid-Country Highway

The location of this painting isn’t clear: there’s no identifiable “mid-country highway,” and a “mid-county” highway in Maryland doesn’t seem to fit the landscape. Here, we look at hilly terrain under a cloudy sky that have rendered the mountaintops very dark. A driveway in the foreground leads to a road, whose unpaved status either renders Powell’s title somewhat ironic or implies that we are looking from a newer road upon this simpler tableau. A farm and fields is visible in the midground, and another further in the distance. The colors here all are muted fall earthtones, no blazing foliage.

About the Artist: Born in Van Wert, OH, Powell traveled and painted the American landscape at a young age, a pattern followed through much of his life. At age 15 it was a trip to Portland, OR, and San Francisco, eventually resulting in his enrollment at the San Francisco School of Design. Powell later studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts; Académie Julian, Paris; and with the classicist Édouard Toudouze and portraitist Gabriel Ferrier. He painted lakes in Glacier National Park, mountains in Idaho, town squares in France, and street scenes in New York. “Every time I got a couple hundred dollars in hand I’d strike out for some new place,” he later said (“Artist”). Although Powell’s specialty was landscape paintings, sometimes he experimented with engravings, woodblock prints, or allegorical material: massive, eight-by-twelve-foot mural paintings of “Second Birth of Christ” and “The Sermon on the Mount” for the Dover Plains Methodist church. By this point Powell had made his home in Dover Plains, NY  introduced to the area by his long-time artist friends G. Glenn Newell, Harry Franklin Waltman, and Walter C. Hartson. The mountainous rural environs of Dutchess County often were the subject of their landscapes. Powell was awarded various prizes for his paintings, a member of the Salmagundi Club and in 1937 elected to the National Academy of Design. But he is perhaps best remembered in his local community, having donated paintings to schools and firehouses, mentored local artists, and served as president of the art association. Just prior to his death Dover Plains named Powell Road in his honor. 1 work at the Hyde Collection. 1 more image at FAP.

Sources Consulted: “Dover Church Gets Painting,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News 26 Sept. 1932: 2; “Four Artists, Close Friends and Neighbors in County, Show Paintings at Gallery,” Poughkeepsie Journal 20 Jan. 1946: 11; “ ‘Artist Should Please Himself,’ Maintains Dover Plains Painter,” Poughkeepsie Journal 21 June 1953: 6A.