biography of Alexander Helwig WYANT (1836-1892)

Birth place: Evans Creek, Tuscarawas County, OH

Death place: NYC

Addresses: NYC , from 1866; Arkville, NY

Profession: Landscape painter

Studied: apprenticed to a harness maker before the age of 21; NAD, c.1864; Karlsruhe, Germany, with F. Gude (a Düsseldorf-trained artist), 1865-66.

Exhibited: NAD, 1865-92; Brooklyn AA, 1867-92; Boston AC, 1877-82; PAFA Ann., 1879-81, 1893, 1902; AIC; MMA, 1917, 1965, 1970; WMAA, 1938; Utah Centennial Expo, 1947; Univ. Utah, 1968 (retrospective)

Member: NA, 1869; Century Assoc., 1875

Work: NMAA; BM; Montclair Mus.; MMA; TMA; Tennessee State Mus.; Univ. Kentucky Art Mus., Lexington; Worcester AM

Comments: A member of the second generation of the Hudson River School painters, his landscapes are often poetic, moody, and atmospheric ó alligning him more closely with the American Barbizon movement. Wyant"s earliest known painting dates from 1854. In 1857, after seeing George Inness"s paintings in Cincinnati, he was inspired to visit the master in NYC. With encouragement from Inness and the financial support of Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati, he was able to study for a year at the National Academy and travel to Germany in 1865. Before returning to NYC in 1866, he visited England, where he was influenced by the landscapes of Constable and Turner. In 1873, at age 37, he suffered a paralytic stroke which forced him to learn to paint with his left hand. After this, he spent his winters in NYC and summers in the Adirondacks at Keene Valley, NY. By 1880, he was spending more time at Keene Valley and in 1889, with his condition worsening, he bought a home in the Catskills, at Arkville, NY, an important center for American Barbizon painters.

Sources: G&W; Clark, Alexander Wyant; DAB; Swan, BA; Rutledge, PA; Panorama (Jan. 1947), 55, repro.; Magazine of Art (Nov. 1946), 289, repro.; Art Digest (Aug. 1, 1936), 10, repro. More recently, see Campbell, New Hampshire Scenery, 178; Keene Valley: The Landscape and Its Artists, fig. 7, 17, and essay; Baigell, Dictionary; Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 1: 164-65, 182-83; Kelly, Landscape and Genre Painting in Tennessee, 1810-1985," 66-68 (w/repro.); Jones and Weber, The Kentucky Painter from the Frontier Era to the Great War, 73-74 (w/repros.); Falk, Exh. Record Series.

Legals