John Quidor (January 26, 1801 – December 13, 1881) was an American painter of
historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
and literary subjects. He has about 35 known canvases, most of which are based on
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
's stories about
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
New York, drawing inspiration from the
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...
and from such English painters as
William Hogarth
William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like s ...
,
Isaac Cruikshank
Isaac Cruikshank ( bapt. 14 October 1764 1811) was a Scottish painter and caricaturist, known for his social and political satire.
Biography
Cruikshank was the son of Andrew Crookshanks ( 1725 c. 1783), a former customs inspector, dispossess ...
,
James Gillray
James Gillray (13 August 1756Gillray, James and Draper Hill (1966). ''Fashionable contrasts''. Phaidon. p. 8.Baptism register for Fetter Lane (Moravian) confirms birth as 13 August 1756, baptism 17 August 1756 1June 1815) was a British caricatur ...
,
Joseph Wright of Derby
Joseph Wright (3 September 1734 – 29 August 1797), styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution".
Wr ...
, and
George Morland
George Morland (26 June 176329 October 1804) was an English painter. His early work was influenced by Francis Wheatley, but after the 1790s he came into his own style. His best compositions focus on rustic scenes: farms and hunting; smugglers a ...
.
Biography
John Quidor was born in 1801 in
Tappan, New York
Tappan ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Orangetown, Rockland County, New York. It is located northwest of Alpine, New Jersey, north of Northvale, New Jersey and Rockleigh, New Jersey, northeast of Old Tappan, Ne ...
. His family moved to New York City in 1810. In 1818, at the age 17, he began an apprenticeship with
John Wesley Jarvis
John Wesley Jarvis (1780 or 1781 – January 14, 1839) was an American painter.
Biography
John Wesley Jarvis (great, great nephew of Methodist leader John Wesley), was born at South Shields, England. His father was an English mariner, who mov ...
(where artist Henry Inman was also training), which was the only artistic training he received. The apprenticeship was not a success. Quidor felt that Jarvis did not pay sufficient attention to him, favoring Inman over him, leading Quidor in 1822 to sue Jarvis for breach of indenture, winning damages of $251.35 ($6,244.97 in 2022 dollars). Because he had to admit that he had received inadequate training, the lawsuit damaged his reputation more than Jarvis'.
Following his apprenticeship, Quidor earned a living by painting banners and doing decorative work on steamboats and fire engines for New York's fire companies.Baur, John I. H. "Quidor, John." ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University Press. Web. None of his decorative work is known to have survived. Starting in 1823, he began creating paintings based on literary themes, including, his first two efforts, "
Dorothea
Dorothea (also spelled Dorothée, Dorotea or other variants) is a female given name from Greek (Dōrothéa) meaning "God's Gift". It may refer to:
People
* Dorothea Binz (1920–1947), German concentration camp officer executed for war cr ...
Don Quixote
is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...
; then following with
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
's short stories ''
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...
'' and ''
Rip Van Winkle
"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their liquor and falls aslee ...
'' and
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...
Charles Loring Elliott
Charles Loring Elliott (1812–1868) was an American painter known for his portraits. He was active in central New York for 10 years as a young man, then in 1845 moved to New York City to pursue his career. He was elected to the National Academy ...
as his apprentices. Of his time working for Quidor, Thorpe recalled that "in all the time we were with Quidor, many months, I do not remember of his giving us anything but easel room and one or two very common engravings to copy. He would absent himself from his studio for days and weeks together. When present, if not painting on a banner or engine back, he would generally lie at full length on the long bench."
A fire destroyed Quidor's studio, located at 46 Canal Street, on December 16, 1835. That incident, combined with two major
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
outbreaks in the area and a financial crash in the late 1830s, led Quidor to abandon New York. He moved to
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...
, in 1837, and, in 1844, purchased an $8,000 ($299,891.20 in 2022 dollars) farm, which he paid for by painting eight large religious canvases based on engravings of works by
Benjamin West
Benjamin West, (October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820) was a British-American artist who painted famous historical scenes such as '' The Death of Nelson'', ''The Death of General Wolfe'', the '' Treaty of Paris'', and '' Benjamin Franklin Drawin ...
. These canvases were exhibited in New York in 1847, but their whereabouts and status are currently unknown.
In 1851 Quidor returned to New York where he stayed until his retirement in 1869. During this period, his style changed. He simplified his compositions and used a narrower range of colors, which he thinned with varnish so that his stylized, nervously rendered figures nearly disappeared into hazy backgrounds. He apparently stopped painting in 1868. He lived in
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.
Career
Little appreciated in his time, Quidor was rediscovered as an important figure in American art after a 1942 exhibition of his works at the
Brooklyn Museum of Art
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
.
His paintings establish a mysterious romantic setting for scenes in which he mingled macabre elements with an earthy humor. Many of his works, such as '' The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane'', in the
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
, were inspired by the writings of
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
. Irving's ''
A History of New York __NOTOC__
''A History of New York'', subtitled ''From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty'', is an 1809 literary parody on the history of New York City by Washington Irving. Originally published under the pseudonym Diedrich ...
'' gave Quidor the subjects for the four paintings in the Brooklyn Museum of Art: ''Dancing on the Battery'' (c. 1860), ''Peter Stuyvesant's Wall Street Gate'' (1864), ''Voyage of the Good Oloff up the
Hudson
Hudson may refer to:
People
* Hudson (given name)
* Hudson (surname)
* Henry Hudson, English explorer
* Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back
* Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudso ...
'' (1866), and ''The Voyage from Communipaw to Hell Gate'' (1866). These show Quidor's characteristic mellow and harmonious color, poetic imagination, and naïve humor.
Also in the Brooklyn Museum of Art are his three paintings ''Dorothea'', ''Money Diggers'', and ''Wolfert's Will''. He sometimes painted religious subjects, such as ''Jesus Blessing the Sick''.
Further reading
* Brooklyn Museum, & Baur, J. I. H. (1942). ''John Quidor, 1801–1881''. rooklyn Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.
Gallery
File:WLA brooklynmuseum John Quidor-The Money Diggers 1832.jpg, John Quidor. ''The Money Diggers'', 1832. Oil on canvas.
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
File:QuidorRipVanWinkle.jpg, ''The Return of Rip Van Winkle'' (1849)
File:Devil and Tom Walker.JPG, ''The Devil and Tom Walker'' (1856)