In a 1926 letter to the owner's mother, Maxfield Parrish wrote: "The original of the painting, 'Tree on a Rock' is in Cornish, New Hampshire, an old rock maple growing in a deserted sheep pasture, in wonderful country half a mile north of my home, a place where nobody goes.  The painting of the tree is as near a 'speaking likeness🦂' as I could get, but the landscape, perhaps, is not so truthful, but founded in fact.  You cannot see just that landscape from where the tree grows, but it is there and could be seen but for woods and hills between. The mountain is Ascutney, by Windsor, over in Vermont, and the meadow land below through which the Connecticut river flows.  This painting might be called the 'profile' of this particular tree, as distinguished from the other painting of it in the exhibition 'Portrait of a Tree,' which could be the 'full-face.' "  Upon receiving a flattering and gracious note back from the owner, Parrish responded: "The place itself does downright magic to you: it is always silent over there: a walk up Sugar Hill Road takes all the kinks out of you and puts you back where you belong."