This collection consists of four letters addressed to Hudson River School artist Jasper F. Cropsey from art collector L. Warrington Gillet and O. A. Gill [likely Owen Gill] of Baltimore, dated January 24, 1845, to February 4, 1846. The letters are accompanied by one annotated envelope, postmarked May 6, 1859.
Gillett asked whether or not Cropsey ever painted the "little picture" he ordered following Gillet's purchase of "Evening" (January 24, 1845). Three letters from O. A. Gill [probably Owen Gill], January 5-February 4, 1846, respect the purchase, shipment, and receipt of paintings. In his letter of January 5th, Gill informed Cropsey that "The old place looks pretty much the same as ever. The only improvement I'm making is cleaning out briars, stumps, under wood &c.--The very thing which you, as an artist would put your bets in at once--All these things look very well in a picture, but when you see them in nature youre always disposed to imagine them the hiding places of Snakes, lizzards & such 'Varmints'."
Jasper Francis Cropsey, son of Jacob Rezeau Cropsey and Elizabeth Hilyer née Cortelyou, was born February 18, 1823, in Rossville, Staten Island, New York. Cropsey began drawing as a child and eventually trained as an architect and landscape artist. He was part of the Hudson River School art movement. By 1843, he opened his own office, advertising as an "Architect and Landscape Painter."
In May 1847, Cropsey married Maria Cooley, with whom he had two children. The couple would spend time in Italy, England, and New York while Cropsey enjoyed a successful career as a landscape artist. University of Michigan President Henry P. Tappan, a friend, retained Cropsey in 1855 to produce two paintings: one of the Detroit Observatory and a landscape of the University campus. By 1867, Cropsey returned to architecture as his popularity as a landscape artist began to wane. The last few years of his life was spent in Hastings-on-Hudson, where he died on June 22, 1900.
