- John Quidor
John Quidor ("kĬdôr",
January 26 ,1801 –December 13 ,1881 ) was an American painter of historical and literary subjects.Biography
Quidor was born in Gloucester Co., N. J., and in 1826 moved to
New York City where he studiedpainting underJohn Wesley Jarvis andHenry Inman . Afterward he lived on a farm nearQuincy, Illinois , but returned to New York City in 1851. He was obliged to support himself by painting the panels of stage coaches and fire engines and died in abjectpoverty .Although Quidor was little appreciated in his own time, after his death he was accorded a place among the best early American artists. His paintings establish a mysterious romantic setting for scenes in which he mingled macabre elements with an earthy humor. Many of his works, such as "Ichabod Crane Pursued by the Headless Horseman", in the
Smithsonian American Art Museum , were inspired by the writings ofWashington Irving , who was a personal friend. Irving's "A History of New York" gave Quidor the subjects for the four paintings in the Brooklyn (N. Y.) Institute: "Dancing on the Battery" (c. 1860), "Peter Stuyvesant's Wall Street Gate" (1864), "Voyage of the Good Oloff up the Hudson" (1866), and "The Voyage from Communipaw to Hell Gate" (1866). These show Quidor's characteristic mellow and harmonious color, poetic imagination, and naïve humor.He is represented in the
Brooklyn Museum by three paintings: "Dorothea", "Money Diggers", and "Wolfert's Will". He also painted religious subjects such as "Jesus Blessing the Sick."Further reading
*Brooklyn Museum, & Baur, J. I. H. (1942). "John Quidor, 1801-1881". [Brooklyn] : Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. OCLC|4661047
Gallery of works
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