William J. Mullins
Trees Reflected in a Pond, Twilightabout 1900
platinum print
3 1/8 x 4 1/8 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
The day wanes quietly in this tiny, beautifully detailed image. Like so many artists and photographers, Mullins used water as a mirror to reflect the landscape’s natural features. Mullins actually began his career as a painter, friendly with Childe Hassam and Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose landscapes also played with impressions of light, color, and water.
