Creator Record
Metadata
Name |
Cropsey, Jasper Francis |
Other names |
Frank Cropsey |
Dates & places of birth and death |
B. 1823, Rossville, Staten Island, New York D. 1900, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York |
Nationality |
American |
Notes |
It has been suggested that this painting depicts one of the vistas from Frederic Church's home. Cropsey made his reputation in London in 1860, exhibiting a large (60in. X 108in.) landscape titled Autumn - On the Hudson River. The British, unfamiliar with the brilliant array of northeastern United States foliage, were skeptical of the brilliant colors of the leaves in the painting. In response to the public controversy, Cropsey sent home for real leaves, which he pasted on cardboard and hung next to the painting. The mounting publicity introduced the British to American autumnal splendor and established Cropsey as the foremost painter of American autumnal scenery. Cropsey's preoccupation with autumn can be explained in part as a means to display his talent as a colorist and in part as a way to infuse his work with symbolic meaning. (In the nineteenth century it was widely believed that America's autumnal splendor, unknown in Europe and Asia, represented God's blessing on this nation, one of the premises of the Hudson River School ideology.) |
Relationships |
Maria Cooley (wife) |
Places of residence |
Ever Rest, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York |
Role |
Artist |
Titles & Honors |
At 21 he was the youngest Associate Member ever elected to the National Academy. |
Education |
Hudson River Valley School of Painters |
