Nelson Augustus Moore

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Nelson Augustus Moore (born August 1824 in Kensington , Connecticut ; died November 30, 1902 in Berlin , Connecticut) was an American painter, photographer, and sculptor.

life and work

Moore was born into a family that had lived in Kensington for several generations and worked first in the family's own factory and then briefly on the railroad. He then studied painting at the National Academy of Design in New York City, first with Thomas Seir Cummings (1804-1894), then with Daniel Huntington . In 1854 he and his brother Roswell Moore opened a photo studio in Hartford , Connecticut. His numerous photographs ( daguerreotype ), which document life in Hartford in the 1850s and 1860s, are of particular historical interest . Among the best known are the only surviving photographs of the famous Charter Oak , which fell in a storm in August 1856, as well as photographs showing the consequences of the devastating fire at the Colt Fire Arms Manufactory in 1864. Also in 1864 he photographed some of the last surviving veterans of the American War of Independence for EB Hillard's band The Last Men of the Revolution .

  • Portrait of 102 year old Samuel Downing, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, 1864

  • Photograph of Charter Oak the morning after its fall, August 21, 1856.

In addition to photography, from 1864 he mainly devoted himself to landscape painting. The painters of the Hudson River School , to which he is occasionally counted, exerted a great influence on him . He found his motifs mostly in the rural areas of his home state Connecticut. Today, Connecticut's art museums contain many works by the artist, who was recognized during his lifetime. The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford and the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain hold important collections . The Vose Galleries in Boston dedicated an exhibition to him in 1966, 1971 and most recently in 1990. The Connecticut Historical Society preserves much of his estate, including letters, diaries, and his easel .

  • Mill Pond, Kensington - painting, 1897.

  • Echo Lake - painting, undated.

literature

  • Ellen Fletcher: Nelson Augustus Moore (1824–1902) . Moore Picture Trust, 1994. ISBN 0963749102 .

Web links

Commons : Nelson Augustus Moore  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Hauptman, Corinne Currat, Dominique Hoeltschi: Peindre l'Amérique - Les artistes du Nouveau Monde 1830–1900 (catalog d'exposition) . In: La Bibliothèque des Arts . 1st edition. Fondation de l'Hermitage , Lausanne 2014, ISBN 978-2-88453-186-3 , p. 168 .
personal data
SURNAME Moore, Nelson Augustus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American landscape painter, photographer, and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH August 1824
PLACE OF BIRTH Kensington (Connecticut)
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1902
Place of death Berlin (Connecticut)