Charles Baker

Working in New York at the beginning of the Hudson River School movement, Charles Baker created idyllic landscape paintings of an early American wilderness. According to vintage New York directories, Baker was also active as a saddler, gunsmith, importer, and silver-plate artisan, but his favorite occupation was painting scenic vistas of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. He was deeply influenced by the dramatic work of Thomas Cole and painted in a romantic style clearly tied to Cole’s sublime aesthetic. Art historians have suggested that he went so far as to produce copies of several of Cole’s paintings. Baker exhibited at the National Academy of Design between 1839 and 1864, as well as the American Art-Union.