Thomas Worthington Whittredge

Lake Shawangunk, 1863

oil on canvas

12 x 23 ½ in.

Gift of the Newhouse Galleries

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Worthington Whittredge, as he called himself after 1855, was born on a farm in Springfield, Ohio.  He moved to Cincinnati in 1837, worked with his brother-in-law as a house painter, and taught himself to paint portraits and landscapes.  He experimented with daguerreotypes in Indianapolis, opened a portrait studio in Charlestown, West Virginia, and then returned to Cincinnati.  From 1843 on, he devoted himself to landscapes.  Through the efforts of wealthy Cincinnati art patron Nicholas Longworth, Whittredge was able to study for five years in Düsseldorf, Germany.  He also spent five years in Rome before returning to the United States in 1859.  Whittredge settled in New York City, where he opened a studio.  He experienced some difficulty adapting his European skills to the American scene.  The quality of light seemed different to Whittredge, who was accustomed to the frequently overcast skies of central Germany.  His search for an American style was aided by the example of Sanford Gifford, whom he had known in Düsseldorf and Rome. 

In 1863, Whittredge painted several works, including Lake Shawangunk, which revealed Gifford’s influence in their panoramic scope and luminous colors.  This canvas captures the crisp atmosphere and color of the Catskills in autumn.  It also suggests the Hudson River School’s response to pantheism, the belief that the deity is present in every detail of creation.  The light-filled sky and its reflection in the smooth River could be viewed as a metaphor of spiritual and physical harmony. In this context, the canoe, poised at the apex of an arrow-shaped wake, may represent man’s spiritual aspirations.

Reference

Cheryl A. Cibulka.  Quiet Places: The American Landscapes of Worthington Whittredge, Washington, D. C.: Adams Davidson Galleries, Inc., 1982. ASIN: B000KBJREO