Jasper Francis Cropsey

American, 1823 - 1900

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American painter (1823–1900)

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Jasper Francis Cropsey, Hudson River Brick Piers, 1886, graphite and watercolor on brown wove paper, John Davis Hatch Collection, 1979.20.26

Hudson River Brick Piers

Jasper Francis Cropsey · 1886 · graphite and watercolor on brown wove paper ·  Accession ID  1979.20.26

Jasper Francis Cropsey, The Hudson River at Hastings, 1885, graphite on wove paper, John Davis Hatch Collection, 1979.20.28

The Hudson River at Hastings

Jasper Francis Cropsey · 1885 · graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1979.20.28

Jasper Francis Cropsey, View of Mt. Washington, 1881, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Gift of Mr. & Mrs. John C. Newington), 2015.19.157

View of Mt. Washington

Jasper Francis Cropsey · 1881 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2015.19.157

We look out onto a sweeping, panoramic view with trees, their leaves fiery orange and red, framing a view of a distant body of water under a sun-streaked sky in this long, horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, and is lined with hazy mountains and clouds in the deep distance. Close examination slowly reveals minuscule birds tucked into the crimson-red, golden yellow, and deep, sage-green leaves of the trees to either side of the painting. Closest to us, vine-covered, fallen tree trunks and mossy gray boulders line the bottom edge of the canvas. Beyond a trickling waterfall and small pool near the lower left corner, and tiny within the scale of the landscape, a group of three men and their dogs sit and recline around a blanket and a picnic basket, their rifles leaning against a tree nearby. The land sweeps down to a grassy meadow crossed by a meandering stream that winds into the distance, at the center of the painting. Touches of white and gray represent a flock of grazing sheep in the meadow. A low wooden bridge spans the stream to our right, and a few cows drink from the riverbank. Smoke rises from chimneys in a town lining the riverbank and shoreline beyond, and tiny white sails and steamboats dot the waterway. Light pours onto the scene with rays like a starburst from behind a lavender-gray cloud covering the sun, low in the sky. The artist signed the painting as if he had inscribed the flat top of a rock at the lower center of the landscape with his name, the title of the painting, and date: “Autumn – on the Hudson River, J.F Cropsey, London 1860.”
Jasper Francis Cropsey, Autumn - On the Hudson River, 1860, oil on canvas, Gift of the Avalon Foundation, 1963.9.1

Autumn - On the Hudson River

Jasper Francis Cropsey · 1860 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.9.1

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Warwick Castle, England, 1857, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Hirschl, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.142.1

Warwick Castle, England

Jasper Francis Cropsey · 1857 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1991.142.1

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Fort Hamilton, Staten Island, 1854, graphite on wove paper, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Membership Association Fund), 2015.19.561

Fort Hamilton, Staten Island

Jasper Francis Cropsey · 1854 · graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  2015.19.561

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Study for "View of Mt. Washington", 1852, graphite on wove paper, Corcoran Collection (Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Newington), 2015.19.2622

Study for "View of Mt. Washington"

Jasper Francis Cropsey · 1852 · graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  2015.19.2622

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Sherberne Valley, 1852, graphite and brown ink wash with gouache on wove paper, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Membership Association Fund), 2015.19.562

Sherberne Valley

Jasper Francis Cropsey · 1852 · graphite and brown ink wash with gouache on wove paper ·  Accession ID  2015.19.562

A river winds from close to us to a distant mountain outlined against a dim sky in this horizontal landscape painting, which has a shallowly arched top. The rippling river bends from the bottom right corner of the canvas into the middle of the painting and then curves out of view in a grassy field. Wisps of fog to the right show the distant path of the river. Land in the lower left corner of the painting is loosely painted with earthy green and brown, which could represent grass, rocks, and fallen tree trunks. Sunlight warms a single-story, compact, white-walled house with a brown roof and a chimney in a clearing to the left. A few trees stand near the house, and a tree-carpeted mountain rises sharply beyond it. The mountain is backlit or thrown into shadow by the low sun. In the top quarter of the composition, pale peach-colored clouds kick up around the mountain against a pink-tinged horizon in the blue sky. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he had written on a rock in the lower center of the composition, “1851 J.F. Cropsey.”
Jasper Francis Cropsey, Tourn Mountain, Head Quarters of Washington, Rockland Co., New York, 1851, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Gift of William Wilson Corcoran), 2015.19.109

Tourn Mountain, Head Quarters of Washington, Rockland Co., New York

Jasper Francis Cropsey · 1851 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2015.19.109

A turreted, sprawling stone castle, bronzed by the setting sun, crowns a rocky cliff at the center of this horizontal landscape painting. A round turret rises in the center of the castle’s jumble of blocky, square buildings. The buildings are dramatically outlined against a mass of roiling charcoal-gray and indigo-blue clouds, which are edged in peach, in the upper right corner. Barely noticeable amid the hulking structure, a scarlet-red flag flutters from a window in the tower overlooking a distant crag to our right. On that distant mountain, a column of amber smoke rises to mingle with the clouds above a bright band of sunlight on the horizon. Low trees and bushes grow around the base of the battlements. The land dips steeply toward us to a river below the cliff. Through the tangle of trees, a dirt road winds down the hill to a bridge of pale stone that crosses the river in front of us, to our left of center. Groups of helmeted horsemen cross the bridge, passing under a stone archway at its center. Near the bridge, tiny in scale, a herd of goats capers on the road near the horsemen as they ride on in a double column coming toward us along the clay-brown road. One rider carries a red pennant fluttering in the breeze. The riders wear ruby-red tunics and carry upright lances and shields. Light glints off their armor and helmets as they head to our right, toward the dark mass of tangled trees and rocky cliff on the border of the picture. A copse of low, gnarled trees grows near the opposite edge of the painting, to our left. Behind these trees and riders stretches a river valley spanned by another stone bridge. A cluster of people can barely be seen near and along that massive bridge in the distance. Beyond, buildings and a tall, square tower are lit by fires belching clouds of smoke. A heavy bank of gray clouds obscures the rest of the valley. Birds soar in the mist near a distant cliff, where flames and more smoke rise behind a boulder. In the deep distance to our left, a high, craggy cliff topped by a sprinkling of snow surges above the blanket of fog and clouds. In front of a clear, blue sky, it is also bathed in coral-red by the setting sun.
Jasper Francis Cropsey, The Spirit of War, 1851, oil on canvas, Avalon Fund, 1978.12.1

The Spirit of War

Jasper Francis Cropsey · 1851 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1978.12.1

Bibliography

1867

  • Tuckerman 1867, 532-540.

1884

  • Forman, William H. "Jasper Francis Cropsey, N.A." Manhattan 3 (April 1884): 372-382.

1968

  • Bermingham, Peter. Jasper F. Cropsey: A Retrospective View of America's Painter of Autumn. Exh. cat. University of Maryland, College Park, 1968.

1970

  • Talbot, William S. Jasper F. Cropsey 1823-1900. Exh. cat. National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., 1970.

1972

  • Talbot, William S. Jasper F. Cropsey, 1823-1900. Ph.D. diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1972, published New York, 1977.

1979

  • Maddox, Kenneth W. An Unprejudiced Eye: The Drawings of Jasper F. Cropsey. Exh. cat. The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York, 1979.

1985

  • Rebora, Carrie. Jasper Cropsey Watercolors. Exh. cat. National Academy of Design, New York, 1985.

1987

  • Foshay, Elle M., and Barbara Finney. Jasper F. Cropsey, Artist and Architect. Exh. cat. The New-York Historical Society, New York, 1987.

1996

  • Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 109-110.