Alexander Helwig Wyant
Alexander Helwig Wyant
1836 - 1892
American painter. He began as an itinerant painter of topographical landscapes along the banks of the Ohio River c. 1854, influenced by such landscape artists as Worthington Whittredge and George Inness. In 1863–4 Wyant moved to New York, where he was impressed by the paintings of the Norwegian artist Hans Gude in the Düsseldorf Gallery. This led him to work with Gude in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1865. On his way both there and back, he studied paintings by Constable and used a more painterly technique especially for views of Ireland, for example Irish Landscape (1865; Cleveland, OH, Mus. A.). Gude’s influence in Germany was very strong, when Wyant painted hard-edged, but broad and expansive landscapes such as Tennessee (formerly The Mohawk Valley) (1866; New York, Met.)
In 1873 Wyant permanently lost the use of his right arm due to a stroke and started to paint with his left hand. The Flume, Opalescent River, Adirondacks (c. 1881; Washington, DC, N. Mus. Amer. A.) is typical of his later style, in which looser brushstrokes are used to paint mountain scenery. His subjects came from sketches made during summer holidays at Keene Valley, NY, in the Adirondack Mountains (1880–89) and Arkville, NY, in the Catskill Mountains (1889–92). Influenced by Constable, George Inness and the Barbizon artists, Wyant developed an introspective form of Tonalism and Tonal Impressionism. His oil and watercolour works such as Moonlight and Frost (1890–92; New York, Brooklyn Mus.) and Afternoon (1891–2; Worcester, MA, A. Mus.) influenced most of the younger Tonalists, especially Bruce Crane (1857–1934) and J. Francis Murphy. [Robert S. Olpin. "Wyant, Alexander Helwig." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 15, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T092451.]
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