Description:
In 1852, painter Charles Louis Heyde traveled north from his home in Brooklyn, New York, to southern Vermont for a season of painting. His landscapes — which were painted in the Hudson River School tradition — already had been exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the Boston Athenaeum. Like other Hudson River School painters, Heyde took his inspiration from the broad forms of nature, demanding that his paintings be life-like; that nature appear beautiful and inspiring, and that the picture present the moral elements of bucolic simplicity and virtue. His work caught the attention of poet Walt Whitman, which led to a lifelong relationship between the two artists. While visiting Whitman in Brooklyn, Heyde met the poet’s sister, Hannah, whom he married in April of 1852. For the next four years, Heyde painted scenes in the southern part of Vermont and in the Connecticut River Valley. The landscapes of this period stand out as some of his best paintings. After each season of painting, Heyde sold a few works in the area and then returned to Brooklyn to complete the other paintings and exhibit them. Framed landscape oil on canvas painting by Charles Louis Heyde (1822-1892), entitled "Deerfield Plains, Greenfield, Massachusetts," a view from Greenfield looking south to Deerfield. Painting is signed "Heyde" in the lower right hand corner and dated 1853, The painting has several identifiable local features, including the covered bridge over the Green River, at Petty Plain Road. The railroad track shows the Deerfield landscape under transformation during the years before the Civil War. There are people depicted at both work and leisure. Unlined. Condition: light craquelure, no significant damage or repairs, frame is probably original. HD 2020.20.2 is framed in original frame identically this painting with a frame stock often used by Heyde. This painting or a nearly identical image by Heyde were exhibited in 1854 in the National Academy of Design . This Heyde painting and 2020.2.2 were first owned by the Greenfield, MA, antiquarian Solon Newton. A newspaper article in the Springfield Sunday Republican June 16, 1895, references the two paintings, "On the walls hang a fine old mirror and two oil paintings by C. L. Heyde, painted in 1853. One of is the Connecticut River valley from a point near Prospect Hill school, and the other is a roadside view in Wapping."
Tags:
landscapes Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2020.20.1 |
