William R. Davis 1

White Mountains, Artist at Work

A fine tonalist landscape by American artist J. Francis Murphy (1853-1921). Murphy was born in Oswego, New York, he moved to Chicago in 1868, where his father was employed in the shipping industry. In Chicago, Murphy began working as a scene painter in a local theatre and was quickly promoted to lead his co-workers. Largely self-taught, his only training consisted of a few classes at the Chicago Academy of Design. There he became friends with Emil Carlsen and Theodore Robinson, and in 1873, Academy members elected him an Associate; a few weeks later, he became an Academician. His work was first exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1876, where he was inducted eleven years later.He won numerous prizes, medals and honors for his landscape paintings, which are said to rank with those of George Inness, Alexander Wyant, and Homer Martin. Although his world was a limited one, his landscapes captured the forms of nature and the subtle nuances of the scene. Murphy was referred to as the "American Corot" because of his similarity to the painting style of Camille Corot (1796-1875), one of the original Barbizon...

A fine impressionist landscape with a rocky path by American artist (Edward) Wilbur Dean Hamilton (1864-1943). Hamilton was born in Pennsylvania, studied at the Massachusetts Normal ...