W.H. Beard's Bear Dance

New Englanders are famous for taking winter vacations in the South, scrapping together any time they can in warm and sunny states.  My family was different--we always went further North.  Although we often took day trips into the lower reaches of the northern New England states, when we took an extended period of time it was always in the Adirondacks.  I have many fond memories of the time I spent there, and there is plenty of visual imagery to go with it.  Mountains.  Forests.  Quaint downtowns.  And this painting:

http://www.nyhistory.org/node/43788

It's W.H. Beard's 1870 piece, Bear Dance, and although the original resides in the New York Historical Society Museum on Central Park West in the Big Apple, its reproductions are all over the Adirondacks.  It adorns the walls of Restaurants, lodges, gift shops- the image seems to be everywhere.  Though this image, like many of Beard's works is rooted in political and social satire, at face value it is easy to see why it is so popular in the Adirondacks. The park has bears, and it has forests--the rest just requires slight suspension of disbelief.

On a personal note, this painting is one of my biggest artistic  influences.  I have always admired the personality Beard captured in the bears populating this painting, and the mix of slightly goofy subject matter and exquisite technique creates a great tension.  Perhaps most of all, Beard actually succeeded in creating an image where the Bears are believable in their actions.  They have dignity.  Despite the image's popularity and frequent use for decor--Beard accomplished something that many animal painters fail to.  His painting never devolves into the realm of kitsch--in the grungiest lounge or the most mundane tourist traps, "Bear Dance" elevates its surroundings.  It always comes across as art.