RICHARD WILLIAM HUBBARD

(1816-1888)

Richard William Hubbard was one of a few painters of his generation with a college degree.  A native of Connecticut, he was a member of the Yale University class of 1837 before going to New York, where he studied painting with Samuel F. B. Morse and possibly Daniel Huntington.  While he also studied abroad during 1840 and 1841, he seems not to have ever exhibited a painting of a specifically European subject.  He did, however, acknowledge a profound life-long admiration for Claude Lorraine.

Hubbard exhibited for over forty years at the National Academy of Design, where he was elected an Associate in 1851 and an Academician in 1858.  He also exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Association on a regular basis from 1861 through 1886 and served as that group's third president.  Like many of his peers, he sent works to the American Art Union (1848-I852), the Artist's Fund Society (where he was also a founder and president), the Century Association, the Boston Athenaeum, and various exhibitions in New Bedford, New Haven, Buffalo, Sandusky, Chicago, and elsewhere.

A favorite subject was Lake George, and he seems to have concentrated his efforts on finding subjects in New York State and New England.  Hubbard also participated in the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.  In 1874 Yale conferred upon him an honorary master's degree.

View of Mount Katahdin, dated 1874, is the quintessential Hudson River School picture.  The foreground, framed with trees to the right and left, sets off the view of the venerable Maine mountain in the distance.  Furthermore, the glassy stillness of the water recalls the school of Luminist painters, active in the middle years of the 19th century.

Richard Hubbard was a much admired and beloved figure in the community of American painters.  A close friend of Sanford Gifford, for many years he maintained a studio on Washington Square and then at the Tenth Street Studio Building, always in the center of activities.

Source: provided to AskART.com by Roughton Galleries, Inc. from All that is Glorious around Us, Paintings from the Hudson River School by John Driscoll