Thomas worthington whittredge biography examples

Thomas Worthington Whittredge[1] (May 22, - February 25, ) was an American artist of the Hudson River School. Whittredge was a highly regarded artist of his time, and was friends with several leading Hudson River School artists including Albert Bierstadt and Sanford Robinson Gifford. He traveled widely and excelled at landscape painting, many examples of which are now in major museums.

He served as president of the National Academy of Design from to and was a member of the selection committees for the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and the Paris Exposition, both important venues for artists of the day.

Whittredge was born in a log cabin near Springfield, Ohio in He painted landscapes and portraits as a young man in Cincinnati before traveling to Europe in to further his artistic training.

Arriving in Germany he settled at the Düsseldorf Academy, a major art school of the period, and studied with Emanuel Leutze.

Thomas worthington whittredge biography examples wikipedia Alfred Cornelius Howland. The Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge, Worthington Whittredge. Toggle the table of contents.

At Düsseldorf, Whittredge befriended Bierstadt and posed for Leutze as both George Washington and a steersman in Leutze’s famous painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware”, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Whittredge spent nearly ten years in Europe, meeting and travelling with other important artists including Sanford Gifford.

He returned to the United States in and settled in New York City where he launched his career as a landscape artist painting in the Hudson River School style.

Whittredge journeyed across the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains in with Sanford Gifford and John Frederick Kensett. The trip resulted in some of Whittredge’s most important works—unusually oblong, spare landscapes that captured the stark beauty and linear horizon of the Plains.

Whittredge later wrote in his autobiography, “I had never seen the plains or anything like them.

Thomas worthington whittredge biography examples The Camp Meeting [ 9 ]. John Koch. Become a member. Featured Story.

They impressed me deeply. I cared more for them than for the mountains Whoever crossed the plains at that period, notwithstanding its herds of buffalo and flocks of antelope, its wild horses, deer and fleet rabbits, could hardly fail to be impressed with its vastness and silence and the appearance everywhere of an innocent, primitive existence." His painting On the Cache La Pondre River, Colorado depicts the river and plains in the foreground, with the Rockies in the background of the painting.[2]

Whittredge moved to Summit, New Jersey, in where he continued to paint for the rest of his life.[3] He died in at the age of 89 and is buried in the Springfield, New Jersey cemetery.

Whittredge's paintings are now in the collections of numerous museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Notes

1.^Thomas Worthington Whittredge Onlineat

2.^Exhibit at theAmon Carter MuseuminFort Worth,Texas

3.^Wilson, Martha G."New Jersey Guide; STATE OPERA OPENER",The New York Times, January 24, Accessed February 18, "Whittredge, who was born in Ohio in , was a self-taught painter who came under the influence of the Hudson River School.

In , he traveled to Europe, where he studied and painted for 10 years. He moved to Summit in , and lived there until his death in "

External links

§Gallery of Paintings by Worthington Whittredge

§99 works by Worthington Whittredge