Landscape (Laura's Nook)

Theodore Clement Steele's 1889 Landscape (Laura's Nook) at the Indianapolis Museum of Art depicts an Indiana landscape with the plein-air Impressionist approach he developed after his European training. The personal name — Laura's Nook — suggests a specific beloved location in the Indiana countryside, personal attachment informing the landscape observation. Steele was instrumental in bringing Impressionism to the American Midwest, creating an Indiana school of landscape painting that combined French influence with the specific character of the Midwestern terrain.

The intimate named landscape is rendered with the fresh observation of a painter returning to a known and loved spot. Steele's Impressionist technique captures the specific quality of Indiana summer light — warmer and more humid than the Normandy light that trained his eye. His palette is naturalistic and varied, the Indiana summer greens and blues rendered with practiced ease.