At left, "Fishing By Moonlight'' shows fishermen hauling the nets on the roiling waters of the Tappan Zee . Painted in gray and white, this was intended to be reproduced as an engraved 'illustration. (Oil on board, 16" x 12") Courtesy Historical Society of Rockland County. At right, Julian 0. Davidson at the height of his career. Courtesy the author.
He returned home with journals of his daily activities and sketchbooks filled with details of his trip and the scenes and ships that he encountered. His voyage had given him a thorough, first-hand knowledge of the oceans and the seas of the world . He would continue to draw upon this experience throughout his career. Some twenty years later, the exotic people and ports that he had seen became the substance for the adventure stories that he wrote and illustrated for the St. Nicholas Magazine for Children . Davidson spent the late summer of 1871 painting while living with his parents in Fordham , New York . The earliest of his known works date from this time and are views of the Hudson River at Nyack, painted in the serenely beautiful luminist manner of Francis Silva. A small community about twenty miles north of Manhattan , Nyack was known as the " Gem of the Hudson." Nestled in a broad cove on the west bank of the Tappan Zee and surrounded on three sides by the northern reaches of the majestic Palisades, Nyack was, at this time, a prosperous river village, known for its manufacturing and shipbuilding operations. Many of the nineteenth-century Hudson River sloops, yachts and steam-powered riverboats were launched from Nyack boatyards. Early in 1872, Davidson began studying with the noted marine artist Mauritz F. H . DeHaas. DeHaas, who until this time had declined to take any pupils, was so impressed with one of Davidson's works-a sketch of the Monitor on her way in convoy to Hampton Roads-that he immediately agreed to take the young artist into his New York studio for the next two years. DeHaas ' bold and vigorous painting style strongly appealed to Davidson , who adopted many of these techniques into his own work. Davidson' s paintings were soon included in the annual exhibitions of the Brooklyn Art Association and the prestigious National Academy of Design in New York City. Although never elected to the Academy , his marine paintings were included in nearly every annual Academy exhibit held between 1877 and 1894. In 1877 , Davidson married Comet ia Trimble Merritt of Nyack and settled in South Nyack. An active member of
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Nyack' s social and cultural community, he often volunteered his talents in designing and painting scenery for amateur theatrical productions. A champion amateur boxer, fencer and rower, he was also a founder and prime mover of the Nyack Rowi ng Association which was organized in 1881 . In 1884, the Century Company began their ambitious project entitled The Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, which was eventually published in four volumes. Davidson , who , as one critic pointed out, '' ... knew early American ships and shipping better than any other artist of the time,'' was commissioned to produce the majority of the naval scenes for this series. In 1885, Louis Prang , a competitor of Currier & Ives , commissioned him to produce a series of six paintings of Civil War naval battles for a major chromolithograph series. Prang also published at least two chromolithographs after Davidson 's pain tings of America's Cup races. Davidson began devoting serious attention to painting historical naval battle scenes and in 1884, two of his greatest naval paintings were selected for the National Academy's annual exhibition: " The Battle of Lake Champlain" and "The U.S. Frigate Constitution , ' Old Ironsides ', Escapi ng from the British Fleet. '' The fo llowing year he completed ''The Battle of Lake Erie--Commodore Perry Breaking the British Line of Battle." These three paintings are large oils and clearly demonstrate that by this poi nt in his career Davidson was a major artist, especially as a painter of historical marine pictures. Davidson's works are always thoughtfully composed and his attention. to detail is evident. Whenever possible, he contacted participants or eyewitnesses to verify facts regarding the events and the construction of the ships portrayed . In his naval scenes he nearly always chose to portray the turning point of the battle that led to the American victory. These works are, in reality , a patriotic celebration of American seapowcr. His use of such colors as cadmium yellow and orange, with all of their bright effect, and his bold brushstrokes became hallmarks of most of his later paintings . Davidson infused into his paintings the same vitality and patriotic spirit that he himself possessed . In the fall of 1893, Davidson contracted a respiratory infection which severely damaged his kidneys. He died , at the age of forty, at his South Nyack home on 30 April 1894, and was buried in the family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery in Fordham. w Lynn S. Beman is director of the Beman Galleries of Nyack. An art historian, Mrs. Beman specializes in researching and authenticating nineteenth- and twentieth-century American paintings and is the author of numerous articles on American art and artists . This article has been excerpted from the Historical Society of Rockland County's exhibition catalogue Julian 0. Davidson (1853-1894): American Marine Artist, available from Beman Galleries, 114 Main Street, Nyack, NY 10960, for $25.00 plus $2.50 postage & handling. .SEA HISTORY , SPRING 1987