Lilla Cabot Perry: Hancock, New Hampshire

"A Snowy Monday" by Lilla Cabot Perry

"Hancock, New Hampshire, is far less familiar to most people than Dublin, only nine miles away, where Abbot Thayer's presence attracted many other fine artists, or nearby Peterborough, where a cultural elite still communes every summer at the MacDowell Colony. The views of Mount Monadnock, however, the principal natural attraction of this region, are just as lovely as seen from this quiet village. For Lilla Cabot Perry, Hancock embodied the soul of the New England landscapes, as seen through Emerson's eyes. 

In 1903 Lilla purchased a modest farm house in Hancock surrounded by 230 acres of beautiful scenery. It was not until 1910, however, the year Henry James paid a memorable visit after the death of his brother, William, that the Perrys regularly sojourned there from May through September. A stream of family and friends received a warm welcome every summer. Several even posed for Lilla's brush.

Gradually the Perrys extended their stays in Hancock through October to be able to fully savor the brilliant autumn season. 'How wonderful these mornings are,' Thomas Perry wrote, 'with the long shadows over the wet grass and the fogs in the valleys looking like lakes, and air so much like champagne... At this time Giverny was another wonder, when Monet would go and paint the dawn on the Seine; I rapturously enjoy it, and Lilla is out twice a day immortalizing it on canvas... The trees are trying to ingratiate themselves by putting on their best clothes and these are very scrumptious. They are late [this year] in changing their garments, but they have put on brilliant ones [and] now we have the full blaze.'

Snow scenes also became favorite themes. These she painted at times through her window. More often, they were completed while she sat huddled in the old Ford sedan under a heavy coat and blankets with two hot water bottles, 'to keep the paint on my palette, as well as myself from freezing stiff.' Dawn or 4 p.m. or 'when the snow and trees and mountains are bathed in a pink glow with deep blue shadows after sunset,' were Lilla's favorite hours for recording her impressions of the severe New England winter scenery."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Lilla Cabot Perry: An American Impressionist" by Meredith Martindale.)