"Landscape and Water," 16".x 25", oil on canvas. Painted in afirm style with brilliant light, the view is from a heach road in the Mt. Sinai/Miller Place area. Davis certainly brought home the natural heautyof the setting. Photohy l osh McC/ure, ls/andCo/or. Courtesy The Musuems at Stony Brook.
hung in the Grand Army Headquarters. The whereabouts of the painting is presently unknown . In 1862, Davis' s work also ado rned the walls of the National Academy, along with some of the most famous American artists of the 19th century-J. F. Kensett, Worthington Whittredge, A. F. Tait, S.R. Gifford and Shepard Alonzo Mount to name a few. It was illustrious company, but Davis never became a member of the Academy. As the Civil War was ending, Davis left his family behind in Port Jefferson and opened a studio at 137 Broadway in New York. In a letter dated January 4, 1862, a vivid picture of the city streets and the artist's life in New York is described, with some twinges of homesickness . Davi s did not exhibit at the National Academy again until 1867, when he hung four paintings. As a letter in 1867 indicates, he had not received the commissions he had hoped for and was by now quite homesick. William Sydney Mount died suddenly on November 19, 1868, just one month after the death of his brother, Shepard. With the death of John Frederick Kensett in 1872, the light began to go out for the Hudson River School. Already, in Paris, the storm of academicians against impressionists was beginning to wane. Many Hudson River painters were to outlive their time, only to die unwanted on the art market. The influence of Mount on Davi s had been enormousand natural. They were both from the same geographical environment; they were related in creative temperment; they both pursued natural realism , which was deeply imbedded in their rural backgrounds. Sometime before 1872, which was a turning point in his life, Davi s invented a method for transferring art work onto mirrors. He received a patent for thi s and, with Mr. S.S. Norton of Port Jefferson , formed a company and manufactured at SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1989
"Landscape of Harhor View ," 14 318" x 19 718", oil on academy hoard. A view from the Poquott side of Port Jefferson Harbor looking toward Belle Terre. Photo hylosh McClure. ls/and Color. Courtesy The Museums at Stony Brook.
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