In the Shade of the Pine

Name: In the Shade of the Pine
Price: 139 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781682262887

Artists, Writers, and Trees in America, 1825-1876

Christiana Payne

$139

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

University of Arkansas Press
22 May 2026

Photographs: collections; Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 ; Deforestation; Trees, wildflowers & plants

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of trees both as allies in the fight against climate change and as sources of emotional well-being. In nineteenth-century America, against a backdrop of accelerating deforestation much like today’s, writers and artists found emotional solace and symbolic meaning in the woods, identifying trees as a civic and spiritual good in need of preservation.

In the Shade of the Pine: Artists, Writers, and Trees in America, 1825–1876 explores the significance of trees in the visual and literary imagination of mid-nineteenth-century America through the work of seven artists and writers: Thomas Cole’s explorations of the Catskills; Albert Bierstadt’s portrayal of the splendid trees of California, including the ancient giant sequoias; the paintings and drawings of Asher Brown Durand and Frederic Edwin Church; the photographs of William James Stillman; and the environmental writings of Susan Fenimore Cooper and Henry David Thoreau.

This richly illustrated volume shows the unique influence the ecology of their land had on the emotional and intellectual landscapes of a generation. In their careful study of the woods—the beauty of trees, their practical importance to human beings and other living creatures, and the power of the forest to confer spiritual and emotional benefits—these artists and writers laid the groundwork for an ecological consciousness that remains vitally relevant today.

By: Christiana Payne
Imprint: University of Arkansas Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 218mm, Width: 197mm,
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781682262887
ISBN 10: 168226288X
Pages: 214
Publication Date: 22 May 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Christiana Payne, professor emerita of history of art at Oxford Brookes University, has published several books on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British art, including Silent Witnesses: Trees in British Art, 1760–1870. She has curated fifteen exhibitions and displays, most recently Landscape and Imagination: From Gardens to Land Art (Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK).