Arthur Quartley (May 24, 1839 – May 19, 1886) was an American painter known for his marine seascapes.

Biography

Quartley was born in Paris and lived there to the age of twelve, when his family moved to

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore wa ...

. He studied drawing with his father Frederick William Quartley, who was an English engraver. His father was reputed to have demanded two drawings per week from the young lad. At age 17, Arthur was apprenticed to a sign painter in Baltimore. In 1852 Quartley and his family left Paris for New York City and in 1862, founded a design firm in Baltimore. The firm Emmart & Quartley was regarded as the best decorating company in the city (''Dictionary of American Biography''); however, young Quartley began painting marine seascapes of

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...

, and progressively spent more and more time in that pursuit. He held a successful show of marine paintings at the studio of Norval H. Busey in Baltimore. Scholar Elizabeth Johns remarked that Quartley's work reveals familiarity with the

Dutch Masters Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Repub ...

marine tradition of composition in treatment of light and color. To pursue his painting more seriously, Quartley moved to New York City in 1875. New York at that time had become a premier center for notable painters. From there he painted seascapes of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

bays,

New York Harbor New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in ...

, the New Hampshire

Isle of Shoals The Isles of Shoals are a group of small islands and tidal ledges situated approximately off the east coast of the United States, straddling the border of the states of Maine and New Hampshire. They have been occupied for more than 400 years, fi ...

, and Naragansett Bay in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

. 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 ...

was waning at this point, so that other groups were forming, among them the

Tilers Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or ...

, of whom Quartley was a founding member. The Tilers was a group of artists and writers, that included

Winslow Homer Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in ...

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

, and

Augustus Saint Gaudens Augustus Saint-Gaudens (; March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907) was an American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. From a French-Irish family, Saint-Gaudens was raised in New York City, he trav ...

. They met frequently to exchange ideas and decorate ceramic tiles in promotion of their works. They also took excursions for painting, such as the 1878 pilgrimage to Eastern Long Island by Quartley and ten others. On that trip Quartley painted ''Seascape'' and also a blue painted tile of an introspective girl at the beach. The journalist and philanthropist John W. McCoy promoted the careers of Quartley and of his friend, the sculptor William H. Rinehart. In the year 1876 Quartley was elected to the

National Academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the hu ...

. Quartley's prominence during his lifetime is illustrated by his inclusion as one of 68 painters in the publication ''American Painters'' (1880). Some of his noteworthy canvases are: ''Early Moonlight, Naragansett Bay'' (1877); ''Afternoon in August, Coast of Maine'' (1878); and ''Low Country on the North Shore of Long Island'' (1881).

References

* ''American Painters'', D. Appleton, New York (1880) * Benjamin, S.G.W., ''Our American Artists'', New York, London, Garland Publishing Inc. (1879) * ''Encyclopedia Americana'', New York, Chicago (1919) * Harrison, Helen, ''Hamptons Bohemia: Two Centuries of Artists and Writers'' Chronicle Books, San Francisco (2002) {{DEFAULTSORT:Quartley, Arthur 19th-century American painters American male painters Painters from Maryland Painters from New York (state) Artists from Baltimore 1839 births 1886 deaths American marine artists Artists from Paris English emigrants to the United States National Academy of Design members 19th-century American male artists