F.S. Batcheller, Afternoon Stroll 1882, oil on canvas 23" x 17", original frame.
5Landscape
Frederick Stone Batcheller (1839 – 1889) The Romantic
Subject Matter:
Best known for still life but also did landscapes & portraits
Education:
Self-Taught, after European travel in 1874 he felt there was no artistic benefit.
Collections & publications:
Providence Art Club, Rhode Island Historical Society, Rhode Island State House, Rhode Island School of Design
Community:
Member of the 1855 group, founder of the Providence Art Club
Art Friends:
Charles Walter Stetson, Edward Bannister, George Whitaker, Marcus Waterman, Thomas Robinson, John Arnold, James Lewin, collector Edward Field.
Biography
An excellent example of the first generation of American painters, Batcheller learned his craft and exacting realistic painting style as a marble worker for Tingley Brothers. The absence of art schools offered artistic personalities little opportunity for training except in factories and industrial workrooms. Seeking kindred souls, this Civil War soldier joined the first generation of Providence painters dubbed the “1855 group”. He launched his career in 1858 at age 23 producing hundreds of fine canvases of fruit & still life, landscape and portraits. The artist was known for his realistic style, which was celebrated by many fellow artists and art critics; especially his glowing color, vivid contrasts in texture and surfaces and exacting rendering. Batcheller enjoyed a 25-year career in the capital city.
“It seemed fitting to the Art Club, that an artist who had spent his whole life in Providence, seriously working out this own ideas in his own way, should receive some public recognition when that work was finish.” – Sydney R. Burleigh and Edward M. Bannister