Alexander Helwig Wyant was born in Evans Creek, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. As a young man he was apprenticed to harness maker and sign painter. In 1857 he first saw paintings by Hudson River School River School, and later American Barbizon, painter George Inness, Sr. in Cincinnati. He subsequently arranged to go to New York City to meet with the artist whose paintings so impressed him. With Inness’s help, Wyant received financial help from Cincinnati philanthropist and art patron, Nicholas Longworth, which enabled him to study at the National Academy of Design in New York and to take study with Norwegian artist Hans Gude in Karlsruhe, Germany from 1865 to 1866. Wyant was in England during 1866, where he had seen the landscapes of John Constable and J.M.W. Turner and which likely influenced his later style of painting. 19th century artist Alexander Helwig Wyant returned to New York City 1867 where he opened a studio and made forays into the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains to paint. In 1873 he accompanied a government-sponsored geologic/scientific expedition into New Mexico and Arizona where he documented the areas through which they passed. On this expedition Wyant suffered a stroke that paralyzed his right hand. He learned to paint with his left hand and after he returned to New York City, he spent his summers at Keene Valley in the Adirondacks to paint, only returning to the city in the winter. He is considered a second-generation Hudson River School artist; however, as Hudson River style was on the wane, coupled with his attraction to the works of Inness, Constable and Turner, it is not surprising that Wyant began painting in the tonalistic manner of the American Barbizon painters. In 1889 Wyant bought a home at Arkville, New York in the Catskills, which was a center of the American Barbizon painters. It has been said that his landscapes often demonstrate the geological and botanical phenomena that help to shape and form actual landscapes everywhere. Wyant was a member of the Century Association and the National Academy and founder of the American Water-Color Society. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design (1862 – 92); Brooklyn Art Association (1875); Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1879-81, 1893, 1902); and the Art Institute of Chicago.

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painting: 724-459-0612 - Jerry Hawk, Bedford Fine Art Gallery