Mason’s Island, 1905
Oil on canvas
Gift of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company 2002.1.113

With its mix of pastoral settlement and sheltering forests, Mason’s Island off the coast of Noank, Connecticut, represented Henry Ward Ranger’s ideal landscape. As one critic wrote in 1905, “Fontainebleau has nothing better to offer than what may be seen any day on Mason’s Island.” After 1903, when the influx of large numbers of art students made Old Lyme less desirable to Ranger, he moved to nearby Noank, but maintained ties with fellow artists at Old Lyme.

In Mason’s Island, his characteristic golden tones and glazes have been enlivened with touches of blue. Despite his reputation for strictly employing Old Master techniques, Ranger later adapted his palette as a response to the brighter tones of the Impressionists he encountered in Old Lyme.