Biography from AskART:
| Born in Zonnemain, Holland, Leonard Ochtman became a noted Tonalist and
Impressionist landscape painter of sunsets, twilight and dawn scenes
that conveyed silence and serenity. His work was highly sought
after in the early part of the 20th century when he did many
award-winning oils and watercolors, but his reputation was eclipsed by
the advent of modernism.
Ochtman was brought to America in 1866 and
settled with his parents in Albany, New York. He became an apprentice
in engraving, but as a painter was almost entirely self-taught. He drew
and painted from nature and from what he saw in galleries.
He attended the Art Students League in New York City during the winter
of 1879, and then established a studio in Albany, New York. In
1880, he began exhibiting at the National Academy of Design, and in
1883 with the American Water Color Society. In 1886, he first
went to Europe, and spent much time in Holland where he studied
atmospheric painting of Hague School painters including Jacob Maris and
Anton Mauve. He painted in France, where he was influenced by the
Tonalist work of Corot,
In 1887, he returned to New York City
where he opened a studio with Charles Warren Eaton. Shortly
after, he married Nina Fonda, a student, and they settled in Cos Cob,
Connecticut on the Mianus River whose changing scenery was often the
subject of his landscapes. He and other painters such as J. Alden
Weir, Childe Hassam and John Henry Twachtman founded what became known
as the Cos Cob Colony, a center of Impressionist painting.
In the 1890s and early 1900s, Ochtman was at the height of his career,
and was described as the "Keats of landscape" (Lowrey) for his poetic
studio landscapes, especially winter scenes bathed in light of dawn or
dusk. He once told his daughter that he could paint snowscenes
out of his head in the summer time. In a publication, Palette and Bench,
August 1909, he stated that he painted "all my pictures in the studio
from memory or notes. They are arranged, composed; they represent
no particular place, but give to the best of my ability the character,
color, and atmospheric conditions of the country in which I live . . .
after all, we wnat the effect of the day, hour or moment, the mod and
not a transcript of the place." (Lowrey)
In the period of his high success, he sold many paintings, earned
national awards, and patronage from prominent collectors including
William T. Evans and George Hearn.
He joined Birge Harrison at
the Woodstock, New York Art Colony, and served as an instructor and
there was active in the Arts and Crafts Movement as a participant in
the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony.
Sources include:
Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art
Carol Lowrey, "Leonard Ochtman", The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism, p.156
http://www.museum.cornell.edu/byrdcliffe/
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Biography from AskART:
| NOTE from Dr. Jeffrey Owens, September 2003:
My 1910-11 Who's Who in American Art lists information about
Leonard Ochtman, which amplifies or confirms the biography supplied by
this site's archives. According
to Who's Who, Leonard Ochtman was the son of John and Hendricka
(Fonteine) Ochtman. He settled in Albany, NY, with his family at the
age of 12 (in 1866) and became a draughtsman in an engraving office.
For
two years, Leonard had a studio in Albany, but he took a winter course
at the Art Students' League in New York. Whatever the content of his
schooling, his specialty in landscapes was entirely self-taught. In
1885, Leonard traveled in England, France, and Holland, most likely
educating himself by touring museums and galleries.
Beginning in 1882,
he regularly exhibited at the National Academy, and also at regional
art societies, winning many medals and awards. At the age of 37, in
1891, he married Mina Fonda. In 1910, his memberships included the
National Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Water Color
Society, and the Society of Landscape Painters. His residence in 1910
was Cos Cob, CT, and his studio, 156 Carnegie Hall, New York.
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Leonard Ochtman is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Old Lyme Colony Painters
San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exhibition 1915
Tonalism
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