An unidentified male artist works en plein air along a rocky, wooded lakeshore in this real photo postcard bearing a Chicago, Illinois postmark dated 1911. The photographer's initials S.J.C. appear in the lower right corner of the image. The subject stands with his back to the camera, brush in hand, actively painting at an easel positioned among dense shoreline vegetation. A second completed canvas rests propped on a wooden paint box at his feet, depicting what appears to be a wooded island or shoreline reflected in still water.
The artist wears a dark suit coat and a wide-brimmed hat, his right arm raised toward the canvas on the easel. Weathered driftwood logs are scattered across the foreground, and tall conifers and birch trees line the opposite shore, visible across a calm, misty expanse of water. Rocky outcroppings extend along the near bank behind him.
The scene captures an outdoor painting session in a setting consistent with the lake country of Wisconsin or the upper Midwest, plausibly near Lake Geneva given the postcard's destination address. The reverse bears a one-cent Benjamin Franklin stamp and is addressed to Mr. Longland, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, care of C.L. Hutchinson, Wytchwood, with a catalog notation reading 3/16/19, Col. 2.
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