Hartshorne Woods Area's Art History
"19th Century painters, illustrators and writers celebrated the Navesink Highlands' picturesque scenery, depicting what novelist James Fenimore Cooper called one of the most beautiful combinations of land and water in America"
CONTINUING UPDATES - Periodically
John Kensett "Shrewsbury River" 1859
J.E. Buttersworth - mid 1800's
Navesink River and Rocky Point (section of Hartshorne Woods)
William Hahn - A painting in Hartshorne Woods (M.C. Park System)
William Hahn "Gathering Sedge, Shrewsbury River, N.J." 1880
Percy A. Sanborn "Leonora" and Detail Showing Twin Lights and "66" Light Ship
George Harvey "Evening Twilight Bow looking S.E. Lighthouses on the Highlands of Neversink, New Jersey" 1830's-1840's
J.E. Buttersworth "America's Cup Trial Race" 1885 - with Sandy Hook Lightship Detail
Oil on canvas: 12 1/4 x 18 1/4 inches.
We believe that this painting depicts the 1885 America's Cup trial race in which Puritan, owned by a syndicate headed by J. Malcolm Forbes, defeated Priscilla, which was owned by James Gordon Bennett, Jr. and William P. Douglas C Estate of Marguerite H. Rohlfs.
Francis A. Silva "Seabright from Galilee" 1880
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 21" x 42"; 32 ¾" x 54" framed
This
evocative landscape is the work of prominent nineteenth-century
American painter Francis Augustus Silva. The scene shows the coastal
town of Sea Bright, New Jersey, as glimpsed from the small town of
Galilee, which lies on the spit of land -- now Monmouth Beach - that
separates the Shrewsbury River from the Atlantic. This part of the
northern New Jersey shore is now highly developed, but Silva shows it
as a sleepy, bucolic seaside community. In the distance, the village of
Sea Bright appears on the low horizon as a cluster of clapboard houses
rising beyond the inlet formed by the calm, marshy waters of the
Shrewsbury River. At far left is Rumson, and behind that the Highlands
of Navesink. In the foreground, a small girl feeds a group of chickens
in a grassy boatyard. The quality of the light -- redolent of a still,
warm spring morning -- grants the composition a heightened sense of
naturalism and tranquility. This masterful treatment of light is the
hallmark of Silva's style.
"We
have few artists who are so accurate in drawing or so conscientious in
the rendering of detail," an Art Journal critic wrote in 1880: the very
year Silva completed this superb composition. Silva's luminous
technique led to his election to the American Water Color Society in
1872. (Sotheby's)
Francis A Silva - "After the equinotial" off Sandy Hook 1879
Alfred Thomas Britcher "Sandy Hook" 1865
(Not sure this is Sandy Hook, NJ)
Granville Perkins - "The Highlands of the Neversink" mid 1800's
(Lithograph from steel engraving)
Granville Perkins - "Boat Landing"
From the shape of the land and the direction of the steamer we believe this to be the hills of Hartshorne Woods.
J. Hagny "Twin Lights" 1873 (from Twin Lights Historical Society)
Shrewsbury River near Seabright, New Jersey about 1860
Unidentified artist, American, mid-19th century
48.26 x 73.66 cm (19 x 29 in.) Oil on canvas
Thomas Birch "On the Shrewsbury River, Red Bank, NJ" 1840
Sanford Gifford "The Mouth of the Shrewsbury River" 1867
Childe Hassam "Spring, Navesink Highlands" 1908
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Allen Tucker "Landscape: Locust Point, NJ" 1915
(Courtesy Gibbes Museum - www.gibbesmuseum.com)
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More paintings
J. E. Buttersworth below
"Schooners Racing off Sandy Hook" "The Athenaeum Racing off Sandy Hook" "Columbia leading Dauntless around the Sandy Hook lightship in the Hurricane Cup Race"
"Puritan and Priscilla off Sandy Hook"?
J.E. Buttersworth
The Hills of Highlands / Hartshorne are shown on the right side of "Schooners Racing off Sandy Hook". The Sandy Hook light ship is shown in the other 3 Buttersworth paintings above.
The Start of the Great Transatlantic Yacht Race 1867
A beautiful painting with historic importance, three schooner yachts line up before the Sandy Hook Lightship for the start of the world's first Transatlantic Yacht Race held in 1866. In his book, "J.E. Buttersworth, 19TH Century Marine Painter", biographer Rudolph J. Schaefer has noted six views by the artist of this event. This is largest of the known works of this important bench mark in American yacht racing.
Identification of the racing schooners is assisted by the special colored flags worn by the yachts. Foremost in the painting, wearing the Blue was HENRIETTA, owned by renown newspaper publisher and infamous yachtsman James Gordon Bennett, Jr. White was atop the mast of VESTA, owned by tobacco baron and racehorse afficionado Pierre Lorillard, who initiated the competition with a dinner party boast over turtle soup that his 105-foot schooner was the fastest yacht afloat. The Red flag identified prominent New York Yacht Club members George and Franklin Osgood's famous FLEETWING. A wager of $30,000 each was put up the yacht owners for the head-to-head-to-head match race across the Atlantic Ocean. Bennett's HENRIETTA was the first to the finish off the Isle of Wight with a time of 13 days, 21 hours and 45 minutes winning the then-unrivaled and unheard of purse for any race of $90,000.
Buttersworth's attention to minute detail shows the racing crews lining the windward rail on all three yachts with all sails set on a broad reach, using organized discipline to pull hard at the rope lines. The elongated bows and colorful treatment of sea and sky make this an excellent work of Buttersworth’s favorite subject matter and superior style. Since the winner HENRIETTA is so prominently featured, one must assume that Buttersworth painted this after the results were known, possibly for Bennett himself.
Provenance: From a Private California Collection
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More
Kensett below
Shrewsbury River
1856
By John F. Kensett
This
tiny, luminous view of a river mouth in northern New Jersey was one of
several oil sketches of the scene made by Kensett between 1853 and
1859. He also did a larger and more finished painting "Shrewsbury River" now in the
collection of the New-York Historical Society.
The
location is of interest because this scene was painted near “Bingham
Place” in Oceanic, New Jersey, the country home and summer retreat of
Julia Parmly Billings’ family in her girlhood. This painting is
inscribed on the back “To Miss Julia Parmly / from J.F.K. / May 30th
’56.” It was a gift from Kensett at a time when he and his fellow
artists Louis Lang, J.W. Casilear, Anton Wenzler, and T.P. Rossiter
were part of an artistic and social circle in New York City that
included the Parmly family.
The
artist Rossiter had married Julia’s older sister Anna Parmly in 1851,
with Kensett and Lang among the wedding guests. This keepsake painting
of a familiar sea view was treasured in Julia Parmly Billings’ Vermont
home in later years. It is a telling emblem of her personal connection
to the world of the Hudson River School landscape artists.
Oil, canvas. 15x29 cm
(From Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, MABI 4425)
We believe the above to be a second Kensett study
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More Art and Info Below
F. Adams sketch late 1800's
Franz Holzlhuber "Sandy Hook Lighthouse" 1856
Watercolor Painting
(Not clear if this is Sandy Hook, NJ or some other Sandy Hook Lighthouse)
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Artist Info Expanded:
| James Edward Buttersworth (1817-1894) Anglo-American |
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Born in 1817 in Middlesex County, Great Britain, James Edward was the son of important English sea painter Thomas Buttersworth. Settling in New York in 1845, he soon established himself as one of America's leading marine artists. During the next period of his life, many of his works were chosen by Currier & Ives as subjects for lithographs. His images were also used in magazines and newspapers that reported the yachting events of the day. New York Harbor and the surrounding areas became a favorite background for his vessels which he portrayed faithfully with an eye for precise detail. His reputation sprang from his accurate representations of the great sailing yachts of his time. In order to accent the speed and grace of these vessels, he
would often elongate the hulls and sails to create a feeling of motion
portrayed along a low horizon line. With dramatic skies, churning seas
and accurate detail, he ennobled and romanticized sailing ships with
what have become historically important paintings that are both
beautiful and refined. (from Velleho Gallery) | |
(Born 1816 Chishire Ct.)
In 1840, along with Asher Durand and John William Casilear, Kensett traveled to Europe in order to study painting. There he met and traveled with Benjamin Champney. The two sketched and painted throughout Europe, refining their talents. During this period, Kensett developed an appreciation and affinity for 17th century Dutch landscape painting. Kensett and Champney returned to the United States in 1847.
After establishing his studio and settling in New York, Kensett traveled extensively throughout the Northeast and the Colorado Rockies as well as making several trips back to Europe.
Kensett is best known for his landscape of upstate New York and New England and seascapes of coastal New Jersey, Long Island and New England. He is most closely associated with the so-called "second generation" of the Hudson River School. Along with Sanford Robinson Gifford, Fitz Hugh Lane, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Martin Johnson Heade and others, the works of the "Luminists," as they came to be known, were characterized by unselfconscious, nearly invisible brushstrokes used to convey the qualities and effects of atmospheric light. It could be considered the spiritual, if not stylistic, cousin to Impressionism. Such spiritualism stemmed from Transcendentalist philosophies of sublime nature and contemplation bringing one closer to a spiritual truth.
In 1851 Kensett painted a monumental canvas of Mount Washington that has become an icon of White Mountain art. Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway was purchased by the American Art Union, made into an engraving by James Smillie, and distributed to 13,000 Art Union subscribers throughout the country. Other artists painted copies of this scene from the print. Currier and Ives published a similar print in about 1860. This single painting by Kensett helped to popularize the White Mountain region of New Hampshire.
Kensett's style evolved gradually, from the traditional Hudson River School manner in the 1850s into the more refined Luminist style in his later years.
It was during this time that Kensett painted some of his finest works. Many of these were spare and luminist seascapes, the prime example being Eaton's Neck, Long Island (1872) now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The artist was widely acclaimed and financially successful during his lifetime. In turn, he was generous in support of the arts and artists. He was a full member of the National Academy of Design, the founder and president of the Artists' Fund Society, and a founder and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Kensett contracted pneumonia (perhaps during the attempted rescue of Mary Lydia (Hancock) Colyer, the wife of his friend and fellow artist Vincent Colyer in Long Island Sound) and died of heart failure at his New York studio in December of 1872. (From Wikipedia)
"Shrewsbury River" is owned by the NY Historical Society in NYC.
William Hahn
(1829-1887)
Born in Saxony, Germany in 1829. He studied at the Royal
Academy of Art in Dresden and the Dusseldorf Academy. Around 1870, Hahn
met the artist William Keith and moved with him first to Boston then
San Francisco in 1872 where the two shared a studio. Hahn enjoyed
tremendous success, taking extended painting trips throughout
California and exhibiting his works at the National Academy of Design
in New York. A versatile artist, Hahn is most remembered for his
detailed genre scenes. A resident of San Francisco, Hahn died
unexpectedly while traveling in Europe in 1887. (from William A. Karges fine art)
Francis A. Silva
Born October 4, 1835 NYC
Silva was born on October 4, 1835 in New York City, the son of a
French-Portuguese barber and his wife. Silva was apparently a
precocious talent: as a boy, he exhibited pen drawings at the American
Institute. Silva's parents, however, did not want him to pursue art as
a career, so he apprenticed in several trades before ending up in the
workshop of a sign painter. He practiced this trade, which involved
painting historical subjects on the wooden panels of vehicles such as
stage coaches and fire engines, until the outbreak of the Civil War in
1861, when he signed on to serve in the Seventh Regiment of the New
York State Militia. Silva's debut as a painter came soon after the end
of the war, at the National Academy of Design's annual exhibition of
1868-1869. Thereafter, his reputation as a marine and landscape painter
grew rapidly. In addition to the National Academy of Design, Silva
exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Association and the Union League Club.
Many of his early works focused on the Hudson River or the New England
shoreline, but not long after marrying Margaret A. Watts of Keyport,
New Jersey, Silva turned his attention to the sand dunes and barrier
islands of the New Jersey shore.
By 1870, Silva had evolved from a self-taught artist to one with a
remarkably skillful technique and a repertoire of marine subjects and
atmospheric effects that varied little for the rest of his life. "We
have few artists who are so accurate in drawing or so conscientious in
the rendering of detail," an Art Journal critic wrote in 1880: the very
year Silva completed this superb composition. Silva's luminous
technique led to his election to the American Water Color Society in
1872. The artist died relatively young -- at the age of fifty -- on
March 31, 1886. His works are well represented in highly important
American collections, including the National Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C., the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and
the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. This (Seabright from Galilee) is a lovely late work by
an important American master.
(Taken we believe from a Sotheby's Description)
George Harvey
English Early 1800'3
The English-born artist George Harvey is primarily remembered for his
spectacular watercolor landscapes, although he was also a painter in
oils, a miniaturist, architect, poet, and writer. In the 1830s and
early 1840s he created a series of forty "atmospherical" watercolor
views of American scenery that he intended to have engraved and sold
serially by subscription, a project he hoped would foster a better
understanding between England and the United States. Over the course of
two decades, he promoted it on both sides of the Atlantic with
published commentaries and magic lantern shows, in a flirtation between
art, science, optics, and popular spectacle. (from Magazine Antiques)
Percy A.Sanborn
American. Born February 10, 1849 Belfast, Maine
Studied under William Hall, house decorator.
Percy taught art and music, and painted local vessels and scenes. He also made woodcuts for a local newspaper. Percy Sanborn initially worked as a sign painter. His signs and decorative
window shades appeared on many of Belfast's commercial
establishments, and are highly sought after today. A multi-faceted
artist, Sanborn produced illustrations for the Belfast newspaper,
painted theatrical backdrops for the local opera house, and decorated
stoneware pots.
Killed November 23, 1929 in auto accident.
Collections: Mystic Seaport Museum Mystic, Connecticut, Peabody-Essex Museum Salem, Massachusetts .
He studied drawing" in Philadelphia, and painting under James Hamilton. For several years he devoted himself mainly to scene-painting, finding employment in Richmond, Virginia, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. He began working for the illustrated papers about 1851, and in 1855 took a post on "Frank Leslie's Weekly." About 1860 he was engaged by Harper Brothers, with whom he remained for several years. He furnished a large number of illustrations for books, his specialty being marine views, and became widely known through his excellent work in that direction. He has exhibited frequently at the National academy since 1862, and at the exhibitions of the Water-color society, of which he is a member.
Thomas Birch (1779-1851)
Thomas Birch was a marine, landscape, portrait, and miniature painter. He came to the United States from England with his father in 1794 and settled in Philadelphia. He studied under his father, William Russell Birch, the noted enamelist and miniature painter. During the period 1799 to 1800 he worked with his father as William Birch & Son designing, engraving, and publishing views of Philadelphia. Around 1806, Thomas Birch began painting portraits, in both oil and watercolor, as well as marine subjects. He became especially noted for his ship portraits, seascapes, and winter scenes, as well as paintings of naval battles of the War of 1812. Although his primary residence was in Philadelphia, Birch also painted in New Jersey, visiting Bordentown several times and painting views at Point Breeze, the Delaware River estate of the exiled Joseph Bonaparte, former king of Naples and Spain. He also painted an early view of the town of Nantucket, although he may not have actually traveled there. Despite the respect of his peers, he died poor, discouraged by a lack of patronage.
An honorary member of the National Academy of Design, he exhibited at the Society of Artists of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1811-1862), the Apollo Association (1838-1839), the American Art-Union (1838-1850), the American Academy (1833-1835), the Maryland Historical Society (1848-1858), the Brooklyn Art Association (1872), and the National Academy of Design (1832-1845).
His works are in the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Historical Society, the New York Historical Society, the Brooklyn Museum, the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, and the Nantucket Historical Association.Source:
George Groce and David Wallace, The New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America
Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880)
Gifford was an important Hudson River School luminist. One of the few artists of the 19th century to attend college, Gifford studied from 1842 to 1844 at Brown University. In 1845, he left Providence, RI, for New York City to pursue a career in art. He studied in New York City under John Rubens Smith. A sketching trip to the Catskills and the Berkshires in the following year focused Gifford's interest on landscape painting. He became an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1850 and a full member in 1854, contributing regularly to their exhibitions. Gifford was in the White Mountains with Samuel Colman, Benjamin Champney, and Richard W. Hubbard as early as 1853, and again following his service in the Civil War, in 1865 and 1866. He made several trips to Europe, one from 1855 to 1857, another in 1859, and again from 1868 to 1870. A growing interest in western scenery led to his exploration of the Rocky Mountains in 1870 with fellow artists Worthington Whitteridge and John F. Kensett and prompted Gifford to make a second trip west in 1874 where he sketched along the coast from California to Alaska.
He exhibited frequently at the Brooklyn Art Association and kept a studio at the 10th Street Building in New York City from 1858 until his death. He also exhibited at the American Art Union. He was elected to the Century Association in 1859. He was also a member of the Union League Club.
Gifford's works have been preserved at the National Gallery, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the New York Historical Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Amon Carter Museum. (from White Mountain Art and Artists)|
Childe Hassam lived in New York, but he also spent a good deal of time away from the chaos of urban life, painting landscapes and quaint villages in New England. (Pyne, Art and the Higher Life, 1999) In this painting of New Jerseys Navesink Highlands, he used quick brushstrokes to capture the effect of a cool spring breeze in the flickering leaves and ripples on the water. After he had chosen a frame for the piece he wrote to his patron William T. Evans that I am glad to say it looks as fine as anything anywhere in the world. This painting is currently on view in the Impressionism galleries on the Second floor. (Luce Gallery) |
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