Woodland Scene

(1859–1886)

Size: 38 x 50 inches (96.5 x 127 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Signed lower left: W Bliss Baker 1885
Why We Love It

Although William Bliss Baker showed extraordinary promise as a young artist, he is relatively unknown today, since he died tragically from a skating accident when he was only twenty-six. Woodland Scene was completed in 1885, when the artist was only twenty-six years old, and it clearly demonstrates Baker’s prodigious talent. In this work, Baker combined a rich painterly approach with areas of detail to create an almost photographic level of realism. 

The Value

Paintings by William Bliss Baker are extremely rare, since the artist died tragically at such a young age. The rarity of his work is matched only by its exceptional quality and beauty. Had he lived, there is no question that Baker would have become one of the great American landscape painters of the nineteenth century. We have been looking for examples of his paintings for twenty-five years, and this work is extraordinary in its execution. It stands up to any of the titans of the Hudson River School, making its value all the more attractive to both seasoned and new collectors.