Thomas Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910)

Worthington Whittredge was a well-respected and important member of the second generation of Hudson River School artists. His mature style incorporates both European and American influences and celebrates the coastal regions surrounding Newport, the Catskill Mountains and the American West. Whittredge was born on a farm in Springfield, Ohio in 1820. In 1837, Whittredge moved to Cincinnati, home to a large and wealthy community of art lovers. In 1849, Nicholas Longworth, a prominent patron of the arts, sent Whittredge to Europe where he stayed for ten years. His travels brought him into contact with the Düsseldorf School and the Barbizon painters. In 1854 Whittredge went to Rome where he was part of an artist’s colony that included Frederick Church and Nathaniel Hawthorne. A friend of Bierstadt and Leutze in Düsseldorf, Whittredge was Leutze’s model for his famous painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware”. Upon returning to the United States in 1859, Whittredge settled in New York City. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1861 and served briefly as its president. During the 1860s Whittredge took a series of trips out West and to Mexico where he was introduced to the grandeur of frontier scenery. Among his traveling companions were Kensett, S.R. Gifford, and Bierstadt. Whittredge’s coastal views produced around Newport are among his most sought-after canvases. Whittredge paintings can be found in numerous museum collections throughout the U.S.