"Bringing the Museum to You"

The Cyber Art Show continues our study of Impressionist landscape painters in the Public Domain with ten-piece exhibition of works by American artist Dwight William Tryon (1849-1925). Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Tryon was raised by his mother on his grandparent's farm after his father was killed in a gun accident. As a young man he took a job at a prominent Hartford bookstore, where he studied art instruction manuals from the store shelves. He also began sketching the surrounding countryside during his off hours.

 

Tryon sold his first painting in 1870. After exhibiting and selling work locally, he successfully exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1873. His artistic convictions affirmed, Tryon married, quit his job at the bookstore and became a full-time artist. Tryon's style shifted from lumism to the Barbizon school, which was then becoming popular among American artists, been influenced by the works of George Inness and Alexander Helwig Wyant.

 

In 1876 Tryon decided to advance his skills through a formal study of art. He sold all of his paintings at auction and, with the help of a benefactor, traveled to France with his wife. He enrolled in the atelier of Jacquesson de la Chevreuse, and took classes at the École des Beaux-Arts. He also received instruction from Charles-François Daubigny, Henri Harpignies, and Jean Baptiste-Antoine Guillemet.

 

He returned to the United States in 1881 and settled in New York City where he taught and painted landscapes. In New York, Tryon became friends with artists Robert Swain Gifford and Thomas Dewing. He also became profoundly influenced by the works of James McNeill Whistler. On the advice of Gifford, Tryon and his wife built a summer house in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts in 1887. Though he would continue to spend each winter in New York City, South Dartmouth became Tryon's home for the rest of his life. The coastal area appealed to Tryon's aesthetic sensibilities and allowed him to indulge in fishing, his favorite pastime.

 

He became an early member of the Society of American Artists and continued to exhibit paintings to the National Academy of Design. He also became a member of the American Water Color Society and the National Institute of Arts and Letters (now The American Academy of Arts and Letters). He exhibited his works nationally, primarily at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and the Montross Gallery in New York.