Storm

This wash sketch is one of two from the Stewart album depicting Stewart’s party in a storm. Here we see Stewart hunkered down under a rocky outcropping and some trees. Behind him, huddled with their backs to the viewer, are four more of his entourage. Miller adeptly depicts the rain as long, diagonal streaks of transparent wash pelting the men, although, curiously, we see no evidence of the water on the ground. The sepia coloring of the sketch helps to convey the impression of a muddy, dreary day.

This particular composition is not repeated, but the second from the sketch album became the basis for Storm: Waiting for the Caravan (CR# 167A), in the Walters collection. Miller’s accompanying note calls such storms, “one of the disagreeable phases of mountain life,” noting that after two or three days of rain, he would become depressed. “Your early training ([Stewart] would say) has been faulty;–on such days I am more exhilarated, if possible than if the day is clear. There is something to contend against.”

Lisa Strong