Daniel Wadsworth (1771–1848) of

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, was an American amateur artist and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, arts patron and traveler. He is most remembered as the founder of the

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...

Museum of Art in his native city. View of Monte Video Seat of Daniel Wadsworth Esq Thomas Cole

Early life and education

Daniel Wadsworth was descended from some of the first Puritan settlers of the

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 ...

colony. His father

Jeremiah Wadsworth Jeremiah Wadsworth (July 12, 1743 – April 30, 1804) was an American sea captain, merchant, and statesman from Hartford, Connecticut who profited from his position as a government official charged with supplying the Continental Army. He re ...

was one of the wealthiest men in Hartford, and his mother Mehithabel Russell Wadsworth (1734-1817) was also from an elite family. The senior Wadsworth was involved in trade, manufacturing, banking, and insurance. Young Daniel was educated partly at home; he was introduced to the great art and architecture of the royal courts of Europe by his father, who traveled there with him (see

Grand tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

Marriage and family

Wadsworth married Faith Trumbull in 1794. He later became acquainted with her uncle,

John Trumbull John Trumbull (June 6, 1756November 10, 1843) was an American artist of the early independence period, notable for his historical paintings of the American Revolutionary War, of which he was a veteran. He has been called the "Painter of the Rev ...

, one of the period's most celebrated historical painters.

Career

Wadsworth was an accomplished amateur artist and architect. He took many trips with writer Benjamin Silliman and Trumbull to

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...

and the

White Mountains (New Hampshire) The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. They are part of the northern Appalachian Mountains and the most rugged mountains in New Eng ...

to write accounts and sketch the landscapes they saw. In later years, he became a patron of painters like

Thomas Cole Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for his romantic landscape and history paintin ...

and advised him and others on itineraries for their own sketching expeditions. He played a formative role in the life and work of a fellow son of Hartford,

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

, whose prodigious talent Wadsworth was among the first to recognize. A letter of introduction to Cole vouched for the astonishing natural ability of this young man and secured him the chance to live and study with Cole. This launched Church on a meteoric career that would see him become the most famous and financially successful artist in America. Determined to promote American artists, Wadsworth purchased the entire collection of the

American Academy of the Fine Arts The American Academy of the Fine Arts was an art institution founded in 1802 in New York City, to encourage appreciation and teaching of the classical style. It exhibited copies of classical works and encouraged artists to emulate the classical in t ...

in New York. He then announced his plans to build "a Gallery of Fine Arts" on Main Street in Hartford, which would later be named after him as the Wadsworth Antheneum. He provided many of the art objects initially displayed from his personal collection in addition to the ones from the American Academy. He also helped poet

Lydia Sigourney Lydia Huntley Sigourney (September 1, 1791 – June 10, 1865), ''née'' Lydia Howard Huntley, was an American poet, author, and publisher during the early and mid 19th century. She was commonly known as the "Sweet Singer of Hartford." She had a ...

with the publication of her first books.

References

External links

Daniel Wadsworth and the Hudson River School
''Hog River'', Vol.3 No.1
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum
homepage of official website American art collectors American artists 1771 births 1848 deaths {{US-artist-stub