A native New Yorker, Jasper Francis Cropsey practiced as both a painter and an architect. In this wide view of one of the most visited areas in the Adirondack Mountains, he presents a place alive with color—greens, purples, golden yellows, and intense crimsons. Rendered in a firmly realistic style, the scene conveys a sense of vastness and of possibilities contained within the wild and rugged landscape, inviting contemplation about the country’s future after the Civil War. Cropsey returned to the subject of autumn throughout his career and experimented with the bright colors seen in this painting. He painted Lake George several times in the 1860s and 1870s, while he lived with his family in Warwick, New York.