Aaron Draper Shattuck (March 9, 1832 – July 30, 1928) was an American painter of the White Mountain School. He was born in Francestown,

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. Growing up during the civil war. He and his brothers/colleagues, helped the effort of the North with their considerable creativity and imagination, by creating propaganda. A second-generation artist affiliated with the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, ...

, Shattuck differed from most of his contemporaries in that he never studied abroad, and appears to have spent his entire life in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. Shattuck studied portrait painting with Alexander Ransom in Boston in 1851, and in 1852 was a student at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 1854 he first painted in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The following year he exhibited for the first time at both the National Academy and the

Boston Athenaeum Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most ...

. In 1856 he was elected an associate of the National Academy, and was made a full Academician in 1861. From 1856 to 1870 Shattuck worked at the

Tenth Street Studio Building The Tenth Street Studio Building, constructed in New York City in 1857, was the first modern facility designed solely to serve the needs of artists. It became the center of the New York art world for the remainder of the 19th century. Situated at ...

in New York City. In 1860 he married Marian Colman, sister of

Samuel Colman Samuel Colman (March 4, 1832 – March 26, 1920) was an American painter, interior designer, and writer, probably best remembered for his paintings of the Hudson River. Life and career Born in Portland, Maine, Colman moved to New York City ...

. In 1879 he moved to West Granby,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, where his paintings focused on his farm and its animals. In 1883 he invented a canvas

stretcher bar A stretcher bar is used to construct a wooden stretcher used by artists to mount their canvases. They are traditionally a wooden framework support on which an artist fastens a piece of canvas. They are also used for small-scale embroidery to pr ...

key which was used by artists of the era, and which contributed to Shattuck's considerable wealth.Biography, UMFA In 1888 Shattuck suffered the effects of a serious illness, after which he ceased to paint. After recovering he followed other agrarian and creative pursuits, raising sheep, experimenting with apple tree grafts, and making violins. Prior to his death in 1928 at the age of 96 he was the oldest living member of the National Academy of Design.

References

External links

American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Shattuck (see index)
Shattuck works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Shattuck works in the Brooklyn Museum

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shattuck, Aaron Draper 1832 births 1928 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters People from Francestown, New Hampshire Painters from New Hampshire National Academy of Design alumni National Academy of Design members People from Granby, Connecticut Painters from Connecticut 19th-century American male artists