This painting was created by Charles Courtney Curran in 1909 during one of his summer stays in Cragsmoor, an artists' colony founded in 1879 on the picturesque slopes of the Shawangunk Mountains in southern Ulster County, New York. "On the Heights"—this is the original title of the work—depicts three young women in silent contemplation, sitting on the rocks of a cliff and immersed in a dazzling summer sky.
The painter certainly knew these three enchanting beauties, and we imagine him recalling the famous verses of Dante while portraying them so nobly basking in the sun:
"Three women have come round my heart, and sit outside it, for within sits Love who holds sway over my life.
They are so beautiful and of such dignity that the mighty Lord, I mean him in my heart, almost shrinks from speech with them." (Rhymes, 47)
