Newport Art Museum
Newport, RI
401-848-8200
A Grand Landscape in Miniature: Images
of Paradise from Newport Area Collections
Three miles east of downtown Newport, a picturesque coastal region
of Middletown has been known since the eighteenth century as Paradise. Writing
about this area in August 1876, the novelist Henry James eloquently observed:
"One great charm of Newport scenery is its modesty: it has no massive
cliffs that extort wonder and admiration, its hills are hardly more than
gentle undulations; it has no rich abundance of trees growing at the water's
edge, there is nothing but a stretch of yellow meadow grass rolling gently
to the water, with here and there a softly rising hill. It is like a grand
landscape in miniature."
The topographical charm of Paradise long has drawn artists
who depicted the area in paintings, prints, and book illustrations. "A
Grand Landscape in Miniature " features a hundred of these works owned
by Newport area public and private collections. Among the more noted American
artists represented are John LaFarge, William Trost Richards, William Morris
Hunt, Edward Mitchell Bannister, and John Frederick Kensett. In addition,
there are works by many lesser known artists who lived or worked in the
area, including the sisters Louisa Clark and Helena Sturtevant, noted art
teacher William Holland Drury, and Jane Maria Hunt, the elder sister of
Richard Morris and William Morris Hunt. The exhibition also includes examples
of wood engravings and lithographs from illustrated guidebooks and periodicals,
along with a souvenir porcelain pitcher showing a view of Purgatory Chasm.
The
exhibition is divided into five subject areas: Whitehall (the historic residence
of Bishop George Berkeley), Hanging Rock, Sachuest or Second Beach, Purgatory
Chasm, and Paradise Farmlands. An introductory section includes nine rare
watercolor and pencil drawings of Paradise from an album by John Bernard
Gilpin, who served as British Vice-Consul to Newport from 1802-1832. The
drawings
date from 1814, making them the earliest known landscape views of the area.
Donated to the Newport Historical Society in 1910 by Gilpin's daughter,
these works are being exhibited for the first time.
The guest curator of the exhibition is Dr. James L. Yarnall,
director of the La Farge Catalogue Raisonné, adjunct professor at
Salve Regina University, and a historian specializing in the history of
Middletown.
Images from top to bottom:
David Maitland Armstrong (1836-1918),
The Last Valley--Paradise Rocks, 1877, Oil on canvas, 13 1/4 x 28
1/2 inches, Preservation Society of Newport County, Collection at Kingscote
Armstrong was born near Newburgh, New York and trained in law at Trinity
College in Hartford. While practicing law at New York beginning in 1862,
he started spending summers in Newport. In 1866, he married the sister of
John Neilson, a wealthy New Yorker who had brought his family to summer
on Paradise Avenue since the start of the Civil War. Armstrong took up painting
in 1867 while in Rome as consul-general to the Papal States. In 1878, he
undertook art studies in Paris and headed up the American art department
for the Universal Exposition of 1878. After returning to New York a year
later, he devoted himself full-time to art, specializing in stained glass.
Frederick William Quartley
(1808-1874), Purgatory, 1870, Colored wood engraving on paper, 9
1/2 x 6 3/4 inches, Collection of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum (RLC.PAP.MISC.223).
First published in Appleton's Journal, vol. 3, no. 43, January 22,
1870, page 101; subsequently used in 1872 in the serial Picturesque America,
part 16, page 371
Born in Bath, England, Quartley took up wood engraving at age sixteen
and studied in Wales and Paris. He emigrated to America in 1851 after the
death of his wife, and settled in Peekskill, New York. He provided illustrations
for a number of publishers, including Appleton & Company, publishers
of Appleton's Monthly and Picturesque America (1872).
Frederick Rondel (1826-1892),
Second Beach, 1883, watercolor on canvas, 18 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches,
Collection of St. George's School, Middletown, RI
Rondel was born in Paris where he studied under French Romantic landscape
painters. He emigrated to America during the 1850s and eventually settled
in New York City. He accepted a teaching position at the National Academy
of Design and, during summer months, made the circuit of popular watering
places including Newport. His landscapes were exhibited at the National
Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Boston
Athenaeum between 1855 and 1877.
Revised 10/24/99
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For further biographical information on selected artists
cited in this article please see America's
Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
rev. 11/1/10
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reserved.
Three miles east of downtown Newport, a picturesque coastal region
of Middletown has been known since the eighteenth century as Paradise. Writing
about this area in August 1876, the novelist Henry James eloquently observed:
"One great charm of Newport scenery is its modesty: it has no massive
cliffs that extort wonder and admiration, its hills are hardly more than
gentle undulations; it has no rich abundance of trees growing at the water's
edge, there is nothing but a stretch of yellow meadow grass rolling gently
to the water, with here and there a softly rising hill. It is like a grand
landscape in miniature."
