Rockingham County, New Hampshire

Rockingham County, New Hampshire is a romantic landscape of northeastern valleys. There is a wide stream in the middle foreground. Large boulders of varying sizes and shapes help to bring the eye into the painting. The colors are muted greens and browns with blues, silvers, and grays in the stream and blues and muted whites in the sky and clouds. The painting conveys quietness, but the shadings of the clouds provide contrast and give a suggestion of changes coming.

William Mason Brown painted landscapes, like those seen here, early in his career. He was meticulous and precise with details, a practice he learned from the Hudson River School style of art. Brown would continue to paint in this manner to create almost photographic paintings of fruit and flowers as a successful still life artist for the remainder of his career.