Alexander Helwig Wyant

Landscape artist whose style bridges the precise realism of the Hudson River School with the expressive tendencies of Impressionism.

I. Biography

Despite receiving little formal art education, Alexander Wyant became a prominent nineteenth-century American artist, famed for his tonalist depictions of the natural environment. Born near Port Washington, Ohio in 1836, Wyant was the son of a farmer and held an apprenticeship as a harness and saddle maker in his young adulthood before working as a sign painter. Upon seeing paintings by George Inness on display in Cincinnati, Ohio, Wyant was inspired and began to pursue a career as an artist. He sought Inness’ advice, visiting him in his New York City studio in 1857, and Inness introduced Wyant to Nicholas Longworth, a prominent patron of the arts in Cincinnati, who bolstered his career. Soon after this initial visit with Inness, Wyant moved to New York City.

In 1865, Wyant decided to further his art education in Europe, taking lessons from Hans Gude in Karlsruhe, Germany and visiting England and Ireland where he was exposed to the works of John Constable and J.M.W. Turner. The art he viewed in Europe in conjunction with paintings by Hudson River School artists and Inness influenced Wyant in the development of his style. Like artists of the Hudson River School, Wyant was taken by the American landscape, particularly of the Northeast, sketching and painting during his travels to Lake George, New Hampshire’s White Mountains, and along the Hudson River. However, Wyant was not drawn to the dramatic vistas that these mountains, valleys, forests, rivers, and lakes offered but rather “the quieter, more intimate aspects of the landscape.”¹ Similar to the approaches of Constable and Inness, Wyant took up “a more introspective, intimate imagery in which a freedom of technique and ideology asserted the artist’s interpretation of what has been experienced.”²

In 1873, Wyant went on a government expedition to Arizona and New Mexico with the hope of gaining exposure to landscapes of the American West. However, his time on the expedition did not last long as he fell ill and experienced paralysis of his body’s entire right side, forcing him to return east. Following his paralytic stroke which necessitated learning to paint with his non-dominant hand, his paintings featured a more loose technique, thereby taking on an even more expressive quality.

Upon his return to New York City after recovering from his illness, Wyant settled at a studio in a Manhattan YMCA building where he began taking pupils. In addition to Bruce Crane, he taught Arabella Locke, a watercolorist whom he married in 1880. After living in a summer house at Keene Valley in the Adirondacks for many years, Wyant and his wife began spending their summers at Arkville in the Catskills, building a house there in 1889. There he became a part of the Pakatakan at Arkville artist colony with J. Francis Murphy, E. Loyal Field, and Parker Mann with whom he shared a commitment to “a personal, even moody expression in landscape.”³

Wyant was a member of numerous art organizations, namely the National Academy of Design and the American Watercolor Society. In 1891, he was awarded the William T. Evans Prize for the Best Watercolor by an American Artist at the 24th Annual American Watercolor Society Exhibition.⁴ Over the course of his career, he participated in exhibitions across the United States as well as in Europe, and since his death in 1892, his works continue to be exhibited. Today, Wyant’s painting can be found in collections including the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

II. Chronology

• 1836 Born January 11 in Evans Creek, Ohio
• ca. 1842-ca. 1853 Apprentices with a harness and saddle maker
• ca. 1854-ca. 1856 Works as a sign painter
• 1857 Goes to Cincinnati, Ohio where he sees paintings by George Inness
• Visits New York and New Jersey, meeting with Inness
• 1863-64 Moves to New York City
• 1865-66 Visits Europe where Wyant takes lessons with Hans Gude in Karlsruhe, Germany and sees paintings by J.M.W. Turner and John Constable in London
• 1866 Returns to New York City
• 1867 Granted membership to the American Watercolor Society
• 1868 Elected to the National Academy of Design as an Associate
• 1873 Suffers from a paralytic stroke while traveling in Arizona and New Mexico, leaving the right side of his body paralyzed and suffering from chronic pain
• 1876 Accepts Bruce Crane as a pupil
• 1878 Becomes a member of the Society of American Artists
• 1880 Marries Arabella Locke
• 1880s Spends increased time at Keene Valley in the Adirondacks and Arkville in the Catskills
• 1891 Awarded the William T. Evans Prize for the Best Watercolor by an American Artist
• 1892 Dies November 11 in New York City

III. Collections

• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
• Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
• Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
• Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, TX
• Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
• Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
• Munson-Williams-Procter Institute, Utica, NY
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
• National Academy of Design Museum, New York, NY
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
• Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
• Portland Art Museum, Portland Art Association, Portland, OR
• San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
• Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
• Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
• Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD
• Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA

IV. Exhibitions

• 1865 National Academy of Design, New York, NY (also in 1866-1892, 1903, 1934, 1942, 1951)
• Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA (also 1868, 1879-1881, 1893, 1902)
• 1867 Brooklyn Art Association, Brooklyn, NY (also 1868-1882, 1884, 1886-1887, 1891-1892)
• American Watercolor Society, New York, NY (also 1868-1873, 1876-1883, 1886, 1887, 1889, 1891-1892)
• 1869 Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA
• 1873 Interstate Industrial Fair, Chicago IL
• 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, PA
• 1877 Interstate Industrial Exposition, Chicago, IL
• 1878 Artist Fund Society of New York, New York, NY
• Society of American Artists, New York, NY (also 1879-1882, 1886-1887, 1891-1892)
• Exposition Universelle, Paris, France (also 1889, 1891-1899)
• 1880 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (also 1881, 1883)
• 1883 Internationalen Kunstaustellung, Munich, Germany (also 1892)
• 1884 San Francisco Art Association, San Francisco, CA
• 1885 Union League Club, New York, NY (also 1907)
• 1888 Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (also 1889, 1891, 1904, 1913, 1944)
• 1891 New York Water Color Club, New York, NY (also 1892, 1896)
• 1893 Art Club, Brooklyn, NY
• 1898 Macbeth Gallery, New York, NY (also 1901, 1913, 1922)
• 1900 Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
• Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, NY
• Interstate and West Indian Exposition, Charleston, SC
• 1904 American Society of Fine Arts, New York, NY
• William Clausen Gallery, New York, NY
• Universal Exposition, St. Louis, MO
• 1905 Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (also 1913)
• Fine Arts Gallery, New York, NY
• Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, Portland, OR
• 1906 John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, IN (also 1919)
• Nashville Art Club, Nashville, TN
• 1907 New Orleans Art Association, New Orleans, LA
• 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle, WA
• Eighth International Exhibition, Venice, Italy
• Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
• 1910 Royal Academy, Berlin, Germany
• Royal Academy, Munich, Germany
• 1912 Hackley Art Gallery, Muskegon, MI (also 1913)
• New York School of Applied Design, New York, NY
• Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (also 1953)
• 1913 Gallery of Moulton and Ricketts, Chicago, IL
• Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
• Michigan State Federation of the Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
• Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
• 1914 St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
• Roullier Galleries, Chicago, IL
• 1915 Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
• Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, CA
• Mahoning Institute of Art, Youngstown, PA
• 1916 Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (also 1937)
• Milch Gallery, New York, NY (also 1920)
• 1917 Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
• M. Knoedler and Company, New York, NY
• 1919 Ainslee Gallery, New York, NY
• Dudensing Gallery, New York, NY
• Musee du Luxembourg, Paris, France
• 1921 Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
• 1922 Dallas Art Association, Dallas, TX (also 1925)
• 1925 Grand Central Art Gallery, New York, NY
• Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• 1926 California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
• 1927 Parrish Memorial Hall, Southampton, NY
• Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA
• 1930 Royal Academy, Stockholm, Sweden
• 1932 Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (also 1943, 1949)
• 1933 William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, MO
• Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
• 1935 M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA
• 1938 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (also 1945)
• 1939 Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA (also 1940)
• 1941 Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA
• 1943 Butler Art Institute, Youngstown, OH
• 1944 Newhouse Gallery, New York, NY
• 1951 Akron Art Institute, Akron, OH (also 1967)
• 1953 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, Columbus, OH
• Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, OH
• Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH
• 1954 Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences, Staten Island, NY
• 1968 Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah
• Maxwell Galleries, Ltd., San Francisco, CA

V. Memberships

• American Watercolor Society, Member 1867
• National Academy of Design, Associate 1868, Academician 1869
• Century Association, Member 1873
• Society of American Artists, Member 1878
• William T. Evans Prize for Best Watercolor by an American Artist, 1891

VI. Notes

1. William B. Rhoads, “The Artist’s House and Studio in the Nineteenth-Century Hudson Valley and Catskills,” in Charmed Places: Hudson River Artists and Their Houses, Studios, and Vistas, ed. Sandra S. Phillips and Linda Weintraub (Bard College and Vassar College, 1988), 96.
2. John Driscoll, All That is Glorious Around Us (Cornell University Press, 1997), 138.
3. Sandra S. Phillips, “Documents of the Personal Landscape,” in Charmed Places: Hudson River Artists and Their Houses, Studios, and Vistas, ed. Sandra S. Phillips and Linda Weintraub (Bard College and Vassar College, 1988), 75.
4. Albert Ten Eyck Gardner, History of Water Color Painting in America (Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1966), 12.

VII. Suggested Resources

• American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987.
• Campbell, Catherine H. New Hampshire Scenery: A dictionary of nineteenth century artists of New Hampshire mountain landscapes. New Hampshire Historical Society, 1985.
• Clark, Eliot. Alexander Wyant. Frederick Fairchild Sherman, 1916.
• Driscoll, John Paul. All That is Glorious Around Us
• Olpin, Robert S. “Alexander Helwig Wyant (1836-1892).” Ph.D. dissertation, Boston University Graduate School, 1970.
• Phillips, Sandra S., and Linda Weintraub, ed. Charmed Places: Hudson River Artists and Their Houses, Studios, and Vistas. Bard College and Vassar College, 1988.