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A portrait of Mary Virginia Haigh as a young child is also well done. It rests on a very tine grained canvas with a tight gray background. The canvas is unstretched behind glass in an oval gilded frame. Her skin tones are very light with subtle coloring in her cheeks. Her hair is a soft, light brown, not quite blond. A light blue hair ribbon lies across the top of her head, with one loose lock coming down across her forehead with a wave curling to her right and a delicate shadow coming down across her forehead, Her blue eyes are delicately shaded with her lower lids shaded below. Her lace collar fits up around her neck with a gold chain and a portion of a medallion showing above a double lace flounce over a delicate white bodice and upper sleeves. This little girl died at the age of 12 as a result of a swing accident. It is not known whether or not this was a posthumous commission.
Another landscape on a tributary of Big Creel. in Northwest Jefferson County has a small stream spilling over three ledges of rock extending right in the center of the picture and forming a small pool that angles left at that center point. The eye is led back from the waterfall to another small falls that emanates between two large boulders. The eye is led upward over the trees in back of the creek to a cerulean blue sky with pinkish white clouds floating there. To the left of the creek the banks slope up to the base of a large beech tree that slopes right toward the stream with long branches flowing out toward and over the center of the stream. A straight beech tree trunk sits near the base of the leaning tree. There is a highlight at the base of this tree that shows two white flowering heads in a clump of weeds. There is bare rock showing on either side of the pool of water with some bare bank sloping upward that has green foliage, moss or grass hanging down over it. On the right side of the stream another large boulder is under the bushes with three tree trunks rising to the top of the picture. There are two small stones in the pool about halfway to the waterfall. Unlike most of Mr. Snyder's work in which he leads the eye back into the picture, this one stops you with a large boulder. It is such a serene restful picture.
Another painting capture's a wonderful summer scene with two large beech trees in the left and right foregrounds with heavy shade under them. Their mottled trunks, heavy with lichen, are completely dominating and highlighted from the right with fallen branches through which weeds are sprouting. One spot in the foreground is highlighted and has five pink wild flowers in it.
A tiny house is back in the distant centerground surrounded by trees. The tiny house has two pink chimneys. A shady spot from the right large tree has a row of red and white flowers in front of the shadow.
A wonderful picture done in New Hampshire features a pond with waterlines all across the bottom third of the picture. A large tree in the center extends into the sly filled with fleecy white clouds. In front of the big tree is a bed of cattails with myriad bloom heads. A cleft between some of the plants leaves a dark area that frames one white waterlily flower to draw your eye back into the area where waterlilies circle the cattails. Bushes are behind the cattails, deepening in color as they approach the water in front of the big tree. There is a meadow across the right center of the picture with seven cows so perfectly done that a reading glass uncovers the underbelly shadows and their perfection. A red bull is standing with his legs hidden in the bulrushes which follows two areas at the right edge of the pond. One nearest has no bloom heads. One large rock, and a smaller one to the right stand above the water and the signature W.M. Snyder is rendered in red. Across the pond, a hill slopes up to a house and a cleared area, There is a barefaced mountain to the right of the house with an area of pastureland. Many treetops are well delineated on the hill leading up from the pond. The mountain range extends to the right of the big tree. Other trees would indicate a valley behind the cattle with another big tree at the right edge of the middle ground. This scene is so wonderfully photographically done, and shows such great attention to color, even to variations in the lily pads. A clever use of a break in the trees on the right side leads your eye back to the mountains fading away to the right. The big tree in the center is masterfully done. This picture is 17" X 33" and rests in a handsome gold frame. Mr. Snyder chose wonderful frames for his pictures, as if he knew the value of his work and wanted it enhanced by framing of like value.
A precious winter scene 9"X12" is beautifully detailed, leading your eye up a stream to a tiny house with two red chimneys and two windows, with another building extending to the left behind the house behind some large trees. In the left foreground, a large stump reveals a flowerpot extending into the water of the stream that would seem to flow out the bottom of the center of the picture. Across the center of the stream is a waterfall with small bushes on the left end breaking the open expanse back to the house. A large fallen tree branch extends across the front of a large tree and touches into the water on the left bank of the stream. Twelve large trees with the light hitting the left side of the trees and smaller saplings between are left of the house. A large boulder sits at the right of the big tree and extends into the creek with a smaller one behind it. There are twelve rocks in the creek with one on the bank on the right. In the center of the picture to the right of the house are nine large trees of diminishing sizes. Right of the creek are nine trees and six bushes with one large tree root covered with snow extending toward the creel. Signed W. McK. Snyder. I believe that he found that there was another William Snyder over in the East so he had to use the W. McK. in his signature. I believe the other Snyder lived in upper New York State.
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 Don Wood |
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