biography of Roswell Morse SHURTLEFF (1838-1915)

Birth place: Rindge, NH

Death place: NYC

Addresses: Buffalo, NY, 1858-59; Boston, 1860; NYC, 1860-61; Hartford, CT, 1869-75; NYC, 1875-1915

Profession: Landscape and animal painter, illustrator, lithographer

Studied: Dartmouth College (attended but did not graduate), prior to 1857; Lowell Inst., Boston, 1858-59; NAD, 1860

Exhibited: NAD, 1872-1900; Brooklyn AA, 1874-86; Boston AC, 1877-1908; PAFA Ann., 1881, 1888; AIC, 1888-1914; Pan-Am. Expo, Buffalo, 1902 (medal); St. Louis Expo, 1904 (medal); AWCS, 1910 (prize); Corcoran Gal biennials, 1907-12 (4 times).

Member: ANA, 1880; NA, 1890; AWCS; SC, 1888; Artists Fund Soc.; Lotos Club.

Work: Adirondack Museum; CGA; NGA; MMA.

Comments: Shurtleff was an architect's assistant in Manchester (NH) in 1857; worked for lithographer in Buffalo (NY) in 1858-59 and next moved to Boston where he drew for the engraver John Andrew. In 1860-61 he worked in NYC as a magazine illustrator, then volunteered for service in 1861, was wounded in July and spent eight months in a Southern prison, after which he returned to NYC and his work as a magazine illustrator. Married in 1867 and settled in Hartford, CT, but began spending his summers in the Adirondacks, at Keene Valley, NY. It was here that Shurtleff devoted himself to oil painting and took up the subject for which he became best known ó forest interiors. He and John Lee Fitch were responsible for drawing a large other artists to the Keene Valley region, including Winslow Homer, Alexander Wyant, James David Smillie, and Julian Alden Weir (who built a studio on the lot next to Shurtleff). Contributed two Western illustrations for Beyond the Mississippi.

Sources: G&W; DAB; CAB; French, Art and Artists in Connecticut, 146; Art Annual, XII. WW13; Falk, Exh. Record Series. More recently, see Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 1: 182-83; Keene Valley: The Landscape and its Artists; P&H Samuels, 442; Art in Conn.: Early Days to the Gilded Age.