The Metropolitan Museum of Art - The Valley of Wyoming

The Valley of Wyoming

Jasper Francis Cropsey (American, Rossville, New York 1823–1900 Hastings-on-Hudson, New York)

Date:: 1865
Medium:: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:: 48 1/2 x 84 in. (123.2 x 213.4 cm)
Classification:: Paintings
Credit Line:: Gift of Mrs. John C. Newington, 1966
Accession Number:: 66.113

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 760

Description

This large studio work was commissioned in 1864 by Milton Courtright (1810 - 1883). Courtright was born and raised on his family's farm in the heart of the Wyoming Valley. In his account book, Cropsey recorded a payment of $125 from Courtright on August 4, 1864, and three additional payments in January, March, and May 1865, totaling $3, 500. On August 8, Cropsey made at least two preparatory drawings of the site (now in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). One of these served as the basis for the oil sketch for this painting (see 25.110.63). This final version of the picture was shown at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1865. It retains an original frame and plaque with a poem written in 1809 by the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell.
Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signature: [at lower right]: J.F. Cropsey / 1865.–
Provenance

Milton Courtright, Erie, Pennsylvania and New York, 1865–died 1882; probably with his wife (died 1885) or his estate, from 1882 Private Collection; his son and granddaughter; Howard J. Peters, Erie, Pennsylvania, by 1963–1964; Mrs. John C. Newington, Greenwich, Connecticut, by 1964–1966
See also
Who
Jasper Francis Cropsey (19)
What
Paintings (12,451)

Canvas (4,585)

Oil paintings (2,908)
Where
North and Central America (83,036)

United States (79,755)
When
A.D. 1800-1900 (80,456)
In the Museum
American Paintings and Sculpture (5,273)
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
The Hudson River School

The United States and Canada, 1800–1900 A.D.
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