Sketching the Adirondacks: Letters from the Wilderness

In 1851, two aspiring landscape artists, Jervis McEntee and Joseph Tubby, set out for the Adirondacks on a sketching expedition that would test not only their mettle as artists but as outdoorsmen. Heading into the still-rugged wilderness, not yet fully explored and sparsely inhabited, the two artists ventured across about one hundred seventy miles of terrain, sketching what they saw for future painting reference.

In Sketching the Adirondacks, the artists’ unique journey is brought to life by author Edward Pitts, who drew on McEntee’s journal to reimagine the expedition as a series of letters home to friends and family. These fictionalized letters, all richly annotated with historical facts and context about the region, recount the pair’s real adventures and the artistic inspirations that inspired their work as Hudson River School artists. Following their trip McEntee and Tubby were artists first, not natural outdoorsmen, and the letters describe the challenges they faced, as well as many of the famous guides and Adirondack characters who assisted them during the trip. Sketching the Adirondacks renders McEntee and Tubby’s journey in vivid detail, and reveals how their artwork inspired so many others, blending a unique creative approach with rigorous historical accuracy.

Edward I. Pitts is a retired attorney and federal administrative law judge. He is the author of Beaver River Country: An Adirondack History. His articles on Adirondack history have appeared in Adirondac Magazine, Adirondack Life, LOCALadk, and the Adirondack Almanack.