Denman Waldo Ross (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1853 - 1935, London)
A View of Popocatépetl from Cuautla, 1923
Oil on canvas board, 25 x 35 cm (9 13/16 x 13 3/4 in.)
This small horizontal oil painting depicts an atmospheric landscape. The bottom half of the painting is roughly divided into two triangular areas: a green area with some bushes on the viewer’s left and a pinkish area with some greenery and hints of blue on the viewer’s right. Above this foreground and to the right of center rises a peak, the Mexican volcano named Pococatépetl. To the left of this volcano there is a lower, jagged peak. The base of the mountains is bluish-pink, the top of the volcano is pink, and the crest of the jagged peak is white. The sky above is light blue. The inscription at the lower left of the painting reads: Denman W Ross / Cuautla Morelos / Mexico 1923.
Macknight Room
Commentary
The Mexican stratovolcano Popocatépetl takes center stage in this oil painting by Denman Ross. Ross painted this scene while touring Mexico with his cousin, Louise M. Nathurst, in 1923; it is one of the many colorful landscapes he painted during his travels around the world, from Tokyo, Japan to the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. In a letter to Isabella during the pair’s time in Cuaulta, Mexico Nathurst wrote: “it takes Denman a little time to start painting in a new country and he was tired out when we first reached here but now he is at it heart and soul so no doubt we will return with all sorts of records of the life in Mexico”. On June 14, 1923, Ross gave this canvas to Isabella Stewart Gardner.