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Framed Horace Wolcott Robbins (1842-1904) oil on canvas with original embossed frame. This Autumnal View appears to be of Constitution Island on the narrowest point of the Hudson River at West Point. This is where the chain stretched across the Hudson during the Revolutionary War to prevent the British from going up the Hudson River. Painting measures 7.5" x 11.5", and overall is 14.5" x 18.5".
AskArt Bio: Landscape painter, Horace Wolcott Robbins Jr., depicted mountain and lake scenery of the Adirondacks in New York and also in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. His favorite medium was watercolor, although he also painted in oils. Close painting associates were William Hart, Frederick Church, and Worthington Whittredge.
Robbins was born in Mobile, Alabama, went to Baltimore with his family at the age of six, and later studied at Newton University in Baltimore. He moved to New York City after college, studied under James M. Hart in 1859, and then opened his own studio in 1860.
In 1864, he accompanied Frederick E. Church to the West Indies, Jamaica, and Europe. He studied in England, Paris, and Switzerland for three years, after which he returned to New York in 1867.
Robbins had a studio in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State near the studio of William M. Hart. He spent many summers in Connecticut at Simsbury and Farmington. Titles of his paintings reflect his wide travels: Blue Hills of Jamaica (1874); Passing Shower, Jamaica (1875); Harbor Islands, Lake George (1878); Lake Katahdin, Maine (1882); and Early Autumn, Adirondacks (1883).
He was elected an Associate of the Academy of Design in 1864, Academician in 1878, and in 1882, he became recording secretary. He was also a member of the American Watercolor Society; the New York Etching Club; the Artists' Fund Society, which he served as president during 1885-1887; the Century Association in 1863. He was a trustee of the New York School of Applied Design for Women, a fellow with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a member of the Century and Lambs Clubs.
Exhibition venues included National Academy of Design (1863-1894), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1862-1864), Boston Art Association, and the Brooklyn Art Association (1862-1883).
In 1890 he studied law at Columbia and was admitted to the bar in 1902. His last known address was New York City. (
Highest recorded auction price$51,750.)
