I call the character in this painting the “old mountaineer” because he is a reminder of a breed of men who lived in the Appalachian Mountains when few others were willing to risk their lives to enjoy the freedom and adventure of the frontier. He is weathered and hardened by life in the outdoors and would be stifled by the demands of a “civilized” life. Although the man in the painting is not an actual person, his personality and mannerisms can be seen in some mountain dwellers of today who claim that they were born two hundred years too late and try to recreate and relive a lifestyle that would have been more common in the Eighteenth Century.