Alexander Helwig Wyant

Alexander Helwig Wyant (1836 – 1892) was a tonalist landscape American artist who was part of the Hudson River School painter. Born in Evan Creek, Ohio, he was raised in a family of itinerant farmers and early apprenticed to a harness maker and sign painter. His passion for becoming an artist was sparked by his viewing of landscapes painted by George Inness Sr. at an exhibition in Cincinnati in 1857. He traveled to New York to meet Inness, who, recognizing the young man's talent, aided him in securing the patronage of Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati. Wyant received financial assistance that enabled him to study for a year at the National Academy in New York City, where he briefly settled in 1863. He then traveled to Karlsruhe, Germany, with Hans Fredrik Gude, a Norwegian artist of the Dusseldorf school, and later lived in England, where he was greatly influenced by the landscapes of J.M.W. Turner. In 1867, he returned to New York City and established a studio, from which he frequently traveled to the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains. In 1889, Alexander Wyant moved to Arkville in the Catskills and passed away three years later in 1892. Wyant's work is included in public collections at the National Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Tennessee State Museum, and Kentucky Art Museum.