biography of William DE LA MONTAGNE CARY (1840-1922)

Birth place: Tappan, NY

Death place: Brookline, MA

Profession: Genre painter, illustrator

Exhibited: NAD, 1862-1886; Brooklyn AA, 1870, 1872, 1876, 1881, 1886

Work: major collection at the Gilcrease Foundation Collection, Tulsa; Amon Carter Mus.

Comments: Specialist in Western genre scenes. He was working for Harper's and Leslie's in 1860 when he and two friends left NYC for a trip to the Far West. This journey, and a later one in 1874, provided the basis for a long career as a painter and illustrator of Indian and other Western scenes. From 1866-96 his work appeared in Leslie's, Harper's, Scribner's, etc. In 1895, Recreation magazine published a 4-part serial documenting Cary"s first Western trip, illustrated with his own drawings.

Sources: G&W; Taft, Artists and Illustrators of the Old West, 52-53, 292; McCracken, Portrait of the Old West; Art Digest (Feb. 1, 1937), 17, 2 repros.; American Museum Journal (May, 1917), 332-340, nine repros.; Antiques (June 1935), 229, repro; P & H Samuels, 84; 300 Years of American Art, vol. 1, 310