约翰·奎多尔

1801-1881 American

荷兰纽约文学题材画作

约翰·奎多尔是一位美国画家，擅长历史与文学题材。他现存已知画作约35幅，其中大多数以华盛顿·欧文关于荷兰统治时期纽约的故事为基础，并从哈德逊河谷以及威廉·霍加斯、艾萨克·克鲁克香克、詹姆斯·吉尔雷、德比的约瑟夫·赖特和乔治·莫兰等英国画家那里汲取灵感。 约翰·奎多尔于1801年出生在纽约州的塔潘。他的家人于1810年搬到了纽约市。1818年，17岁的他开始跟随约翰·韦斯利·贾维斯学徒（当时艺术家亨利·因曼也在那里受训），这是他接受的唯一艺术训练。这次学徒经历并不成功。奎多尔觉得贾维斯没有给予他足够的关注，反而更偏爱因曼，这导致奎多尔于1822年以违反契约为由起诉贾维斯，并赢得了251.35美元的赔偿。由于他不得不承认自己受到的训练不足，这场诉讼对他的声誉损害比对贾维斯的更大。 Following his apprenticeship, Quidor earned a living by painting banners and doing decorative work on steamboats and fire engines for New York's fire companies. None of his decorative work is known to have survived. Starting in 1823, he began creating paintings based on literary themes, including, his first two efforts, "Dorothea" and “Don Quixote Imagines Melisendra’s Rescue by a Moor” both paintings based on the Miguel de Cervantes novel, Don Quixote; then following with Washington Irving's short stories Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle and James Fenimore Cooper's book The Pioneers. During this part of his career, he took on Thomas Bangs Thorpe and Charles Loring Elliott as his apprentices. Of his time working for Quidor, Thorpe recalled that "in all the time we were with Quidor, many months, I do not remember of his giving us anything but easel room and one or two very common engravings to copy. He would absent himself from his studio for days and weeks together. When present, if not painting on a banner or engine back, he would generally lie at full length on the long bench." 1835年12月16日，一场大火摧毁了位于运河街46号的奎多尔工作室。这一事件，加上该地区两次重大的霍乱疫情以及19世纪30年代末的金融危机，促使奎多尔离开纽约。他于1837年移居伊利诺伊州昆西，并于1844年购买了一座价值8,000美元的农场，费用是通过绘制八幅大型宗教画布支付的，这些作品基于本杰明·韦斯特作品的版画。这些画布于1847年在纽约展出，但目前的下落和状况不明。 1851年，奎多尔返回纽约，并在那里居住直至1869年退休。在此期间，他的风格发生了变化。他简化了构图，使用了更窄的色彩范围，并用清漆稀释颜料，使其风格化、笔触紧张的近乎消失于朦胧的背景中。他显然在1868年停止了绘画。从1869年到1881年去世，他住在新泽西州泽西市，与他的大女儿同住。