William Henry Buck (Norwegian/New Orleans, 1840-1888), "Swamp Scene in Louisiana", 1865, oil on board, signed "Wilhelm H. Buck", titled and dated in pencil en verso, with remnants of a label, 8-3/4" x 13". Framed. Provenance: Private collection, New Orleans, Louisiana. This swamp scene is one of the oldest known Louisiana landscapes by William H. Buck. Richard Anthony Lewis, curator at the Louisiana State Museum, writes in his entry for KNOWLA, Encyclopedia of Louisiana Artists that Buck arrived in New Orleans in 1870. The Encyclopedia of New Orleans Artists , produced by the Historic New Orleans Collection, states that he probably came to New Orleans ca. 1860, but was not active (as an artist) until 1869+, which certainly corresponds with the earliest mention of Buck in periodicals. Little is known of Buck's whereabouts during this near decade interim other than he was registered as a clerk and commissions merchant in the New Orleans cotton industry, before training under Richard Clague in the 1870s and early 1880s. The inscription on the back of this painting, written in the artist's characteristic tightly looped penmanship, in which he signed his name "Wilhelm" instead of William, suggests that he was actively painting the environs, and likely so in plein air within months or years of arriving here. The ethereal atmospheric lighting (typically achieved through reverse lighting) that offset Buck's monumental live oaks in subtropical landscapes is typically attributed to his studies with Clague, who was trained in the French Barbizon School tradition. However, this painting, with its dark fore and middle ground of flora evenly lit from behind, suggests a nascent exposure to Barbizon art that precedes his tenure with Clague. Was Buck exposed to it in New York through Ernest Ciceri, with whom he briefly trained before coming to New Orleans, or was he looking at Clague, and other French inspired landscapes of Louisiana that dealers such as W. E. Seebold exhibited? While this painting is but a mere vignette in the artist's career of work, it is a rare piece that merits further research as it sheds light on periods in the artist's life so far unknown, and gives viewers and scholars alike another glimpse into the history of Louisiana landscapes during the American Civil War.