Jasper F. Cropsey

American, 1823–1900

Jasper F. Cropsey was born in 1823, the son of a farmer. He was initially trained as an architect under Joseph Trench, who encouraged his interest in drawing and painting. Cropsey soon developed a keen interest in landscape. Throughout the 1840s he supported himself with architectural commissions; among the most notable was New York's Sixth Avenue Elevated Railway. In 1847, Cropsey traveled to Europe and settled in Thomas Cole's old studio in Rome. In 1849 he returned to New York and traveled upstate to devote himself to the landscape work that would eventually bring him prominence as a Hudson River School painter. Cropsey's landscapes reflect his interest in the influence of nature on man's existence, a concept that was fundamental to the Hudson River School artists. He was a founding member of the American Watercolor Society in 1867.

Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum

c. 1870 photograph by Napoleon Sarony