Fifth Lake

High in California's Sierra Nevada sits the alpine lake that gives this painting its name. Edgar Payne loved these remote places, and in this 1928 canvas he shows a wall of rocky peaks glowing in shades of purple and mauve above a calm blue lake. Pines cling to the slopes, boulders tumble across the foreground, and patches of green soften the harsh terrain. The whole scene feels quiet and grand at the same time.

Payne learned to paint mostly on his own, and he spent much of his life carrying his supplies deep into the backcountry so he could work right in front of his subjects. That habit shows in the confident, unfussy brushwork here, especially in the way he built up the craggy mountain face with quick strokes of color. He belonged to the California Impressionists, a group of artists who painted outdoors and were fascinated by the shifting light of the American West. Few of them captured the sheer scale of mountains quite like Payne did, and this view of Fifth Lake shows why his reputation as a painter of the high country has lasted.