Lost+Balloon,+The

Date: 1882
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1982/1982.41.1_1a.jpg?itok=2E8h5L-S width="238" height="334" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/the-lost-balloon-1622"]] || Title: **The Lost Balloon**

Artist: **William Holbrook Beard** Born: Painesville, Ohio 1824 Died: New York, New York 1900

Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 47 3/4 x 33 3/4 in. (121.3 x 85.7 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum purchase

Accession: 1982.41.1 || The first sustained power flight was accomplished by the Wright Brothers in 1903. Before that time, one of the many forms of experimentation with air travel was the gas balloon. Balloon was a risky form of travel, even for experienced aeronauts, and Americans were familiar with numerous stories and pictures of lost balloons.
 * Exhibition Label: **

Beard's painting may be a statement about the uncertainties of life. Small children, completely unsupervised on a dangerous precipice, gaze after a balloon as it is blown further and further out over a dangerous sea. To add to the disconcerting nature of the image, Beard has taken a familiar landscape, often painted by the Hudson River School, and transported it to an unfamiliar lakeside or seafront.


 * Suggested Questions: **
 * What is going on in this picture?
 * What is the mood of this picture-- How does it make you feel?
 * How does the landscape affect the mood? Is it a friendly or a scary place to be? (Perhaps compare it to October)
 * Do you think these children are safe? Why or why not?
 * What is the story behind the balloon? Who is in it? Where is it going and why?
 * What do you think it is like to travel in a balloon? How is it different from travelling by airplane?

The Lost Balloon - Some Thoughts
 * Resources: **

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page
 * Links: **