A Mountain Stream1870 · Study 2025.199

Context from the museum

At a time when women faced many barriers, Julie H. Beers became one of the first women from the United States to have a successful career as a landscape painter. In addition to selling her work, she earned income by organizing instructional outdoor sketching trips for women in upstate New York and New England. Although its location was not recorded, A Mountain Stream was likely painted on her summer trip to New Hampshire’s White Mountains in 1870. Rendered close-up from a low vantage point, its intimately scaled composition features tree roots, angled boulders, patches of moss, pockets of vegetation, and gentle cascades of water.

Museum description reproduced from its CC0 open-access record. Read the original catalog entry.

A detail to notice

Julie H. Beers learned how to paint from two of her brothers, William Hart and James McDougal Hart, whose works are also in the museum's collection.

Observation supplied by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Read the dimensions before the image

The selected unframed measurement for A Mountain Stream is 49.2 cm wide and 29.5 cm high, equivalent to approximately 19.4 × 11.6 inches. Dividing width by height gives a format ratio of 1.67:1. The rectangular bounding area is 0.15 square meters; it describes the measured footprint, not the amount of paint or the monetary value.

On an illustrative 300 cm wall, the recorded width occupies 16.4% of the span before adding a frame. A centered placement leaves approximately 125.4 cm on each side before adding a frame. These are calculations by Physical Art For Crypto using museum measurements. They are not the museum’s display recommendations.

Questions to bring to your own collection

With A Mountain Stream in view, identify one feature you can point to, then distinguish what the museum records from your personal response. Keep its medium, oil on canvas, in your notes when comparing contemporary works.

• Which part of this horizontal composition catches your eye first?
• Would a 49.2 cm width still suit the space after allowing for furniture and a frame?
• What surface detail would you need to see in person or in a close photograph?