The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of February 27, 2026
Deer Season, Back Lake, Coos County, New Hampshire
1991
(American, b. 1953)
Image: 24.5 x 39.1 cm (9 5/8 x 15 3/8 in.); Paper: 25.2 x 40.3 cm (9 15/16 x 15 7/8 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 55.9 cm (18 x 22 in.)
Location: Not on view
Description
Barbara Bosworth explores the landscape with her camera in order to understand how people interact with nature’s more untamed elements. She captures outdoor human activities, from swimming and sightseeing to hunting and building. In this photograph, Bosworth framed a wide view of the landscape, preserving a scene depicting a small cabin, trees, and a road on Back Lake. The image is highly detailed; notice a common sight during hunting season: a deer has been hung from a tree in order to cure the meat. Part pastoral depiction of the natural landscape, part unsettling rendering of a ritual of hunting season, Bosworth’s portrait is suffused with tension. The deer pulls heavily against its thin rope ties as it simultaneously appears to defy death and gravity, balancing impossibly on its hind legs.- Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 101
- Trophies of the Hunt: Capturing Nature as Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 24-November 3, 2004).Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; 7/24/04 - 11/3/04. "Trophies of the Hunt: Capturing Nature as Art". No exhibition catalogue.
- {{cite web|title=Deer Season, Back Lake, Coos County, New Hampshire|url=false|author=Barbara Bosworth|year=1991|access-date=27 February 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1995.84