Biography from Roger King Fine Art, Q - Z:
| Alexander Wyant was born in Ohio to a family of itinerant farmers. As a young man he was apprenticed to a harness maker and sign painter, but after seeing landscape paintings by George Inness in a Cincinnati exhibition, Wyant decided to become a painter.
He traveled to New York to meet Inness, who was impressed by Wyant's talent and helped him to secure the support of Nicholas Longworth, a Cincinnati patron of the arts. Wyant studied at the National Academy and in 1865 traveled to Germany, where he studied with Hans Fredrik Gude. He later lived in England,where he was exposed to the work of Turner and Constable. The influences of these two European traditions - the dark Romanticism of the Dusseldorf School, and the expansive colors and atmospheric effects of Constable and Turner - merged with the detailed naturalism of Wyant's Hudson River School background.
His post- European paintings were also informed by the Barbizon Scool, and embody a freer style that approaches impressionism. After his return to New York, he painted in the Adirondacks and Catskills. In 1873, during a painting trip to New Mexico and Arizona, Wyant suffered a stroke that paralyzed his right hand, forcing him to paint with his left. This development accelerated his already free style, and coincided with the changing American taste for looser paintings in lighter tones.
In 1889 he purchased a home in the Catskills at Arkville, a center for American Barbizon painters. Wyant had no shortage of commissions throughout his career and today is recognized as an important Tonalist painter.
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Biography from AskART:
| Born in Evans Creek, Ohio, Alexander Wyant was a tonalist landscape and
genre painter who was part of the Hudson River School painters but who
is credited with making the transition within that School from a tight,
restrictive style to the freer methods of Impressionism. He was
much influenced by the French Barbizon impressionists, and his
signature grandiose eastern mountain landscapes with dramatic cloud
formations were much sought after during his lifetime.
He was
raised in a family of itinerant farmers and early apprenticed to a
harness maker and sign painter. His commitment to becoming an artist
resulted from his seeing landscapes by George Inness Sr. in an
exhibition in Cincinnati in 1857. He made a trip to New York to
meet Inness, who recognizing the young man's talent, helped him secure
to the patronage of Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati.
This
financial help enabled Wyant to study for a year at the National
Academy in New York City, where he settled for a short time in
1863. By 1865, he was in Karlsruhe, Germany with Hans
Fredrik Gude, a Norwegian artist of the Dusseldorf school. Wyant
also lived in England and was much influenced by the landscapes of
J.M.W. Turner. In 1867, he returned to New York City where he
established a studio and from where he traveled frequently into the
Adirondack and Catskill Mountains.
In 1873 he was part of an
expedition into New Mexico and Arizona where he painted many sites
including Canyon de Chelly in Navajo country. On this trip, he
suffered a stroke, which paralyzed his right hand and forced him to
paint with his left. It was said that this led to a freer style,
lighter tone, and looser technique, all of which paralleled the growing
taste of the American public. A critic, Charles Caffin, wrote of
his paintings that they were "pregnant with suggestion" and were a
"search for the spiritual, poetic side of nature through an expressive
simplification of composition and tone." (Lowrey 180)
In 1889, Alexander Wyant moved to Arkville, New York in the Catskills, and died there three years later, in 1892.
He was a member of the Century Association and the National Academy.
Exhibitions included the following venues: :National Academy of Design,
1865-92; Brooklyn Art Association, 1867-92; Boston Arts Club, 1877-82;
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1879-81; Art Institute of Chicago; and
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Public collections that include
Wyant's work can be found in the National Museum of American Art,
Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art,
Tennessee State Museum, and the Kentucky Art Museum.
Sources include:
Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art
Carol Lowrey, "Alexander H. Wyant", The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism
Carolina Galleries
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Alexander Wyant is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Hudson River School Painters
Tonalism
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