biography of Henry ARY (1802-1859)

Addresses: Hudson, NY

Profession: Portrait and landscape painter, teacher

Exhibited: NAD, 1845, 1853, 1858 (landscapes); American Art-Union, 1846-53

Work: Albany Inst. of History and Art

Comments: Hudson River School artist. Born in Rhode Island, 1802 (Minick), or at Hudson (NY), 1807 (Hardenburg). He advertised as a portrait painter in Albany 1831-32, then moved to Catskill, where he came under the influence of Thomas Cole. Ary was working in Providence, RI, before moving to Hudson, NY, in 1844. He taught painting and drawing at the Hudson Female Academy in 1854 and also took on other students, including John Bunyan Bristol. At Hudson, Ary became known for his views of the town and of Mount Merino.

Sources: G&W; Rachel Minick, Henry Ary, An Unknown Painter of the Hudson River School," Brooklyn Museum Bulletin 11 (Summer, 1950), cited Census (1850) in assigning 1802 as birthdate and Rhode Island as birthplace; G&W cited add'l info. from Louise Hardenbrook of the Columbia [County, N..Y] Historical Society, who gave birthyear as 1807 and birthplace as Hudson, NY; Albany CD 1831/32 (adv. p. 198), 1832/33; Crayon, VI (1859), 132, obit; Bradbury, History of the City of Hudson, 209; Cowdrey, NAD; Cowdrey, AA & AAU. More recently, see Columbia County Historical Society, Mount Merino: Views of Mount Merino, South Bay, and the City of Hudson Painted by Henry Ary and His Contemporaries, essay by Tuth Piwonka (Kinderhook, NY, 1976); Gerdts, Art Across America, vol.1:163."