If you have been to the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, you likely have seen Albert Bierstadt’s wall-size 1867 masterpiece “The Domes of the Yosemite.” It’s very hard to miss. The same can’t be said for the dozens of other works in the mini-museum’s collection, many of which are hung “salon style,” their fancy gilded frames stacked one above the other as high as they can go. While this presentation was on trend in the 1870s, Athenaeum advancement director Scott Davis acknowledged in a press release that modern viewers may find some of the upper paintings “difficult to view without a ladder.” That’s why the institution is switching things up with a new “Gallery Spotlight,” which will bring a rotating selection of artworks down to eye level. First on the list are two paintings by Jervis McEntee, a “lesser-known” Hudson River School artist who apprenticed to landscape hotshot Frederic Edwin Church. The works on view portray two distant milieus — the somber end of a 19th-century autumn and a glorious Venetian sunset — in an experience that’s newly up close and personal.
‘Gallery Spotlight: Jervis McEntee’ On view through May at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum Art Gallery.
This article appears in April 22 • 2026.
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