Worthington Whittredge was born in Springfield, Ohio in 1820.  He was an important landscape painter of the Hudson River School.  In 1838, he was painting portraits in Cincinnati, but in 1840 he went to Indianapolis and formed a partnership in a daguerreotype studio.  The business soon failed, and in 1841 he formed a partnership in Charleston, West Virginia (possibly with B. W. Jenks), but that also failed.  In 1844, he returned to Cincinnati and concentrated on landscapes.  In 1849, he traveled to Europe, and befriended E. Leutze (and posed for his famous "Washington Crossing the Delaware of 1851).  In 1855, he began signing his oils "W.Whittredge," whereas he had previously signed as "T.W.Whitredge" and "T. W. Whitridge."By 1857, he had settle in Rome with Bierstadt and S.R. Gifford as his companions.  In 1859, he returned to the U.S., taking a studio at the (10th Street Studio Building), and spending summers in Newport, Rhode Island.  He was in the Rockies, and in New Mexico for the first time in 1866, and again in 1870 with friends S. R. Gifford and J.F. Kensett.  He made a third trip, to the Platte River region of Colorado, probably in 1871.  Newport, Rhode Island remained his favorite summer haunt during the 1870-80’s.  In 1880, he moved into his permanent home, (Hillcrest, in New Jersey), which was designed by Calvert Vaux.  Thereafter, his sketching trips were mostly in the Northeast, but he was probably in Mexico in 1893, and again in 1896 with F.E. Church.  In 1887, Ortigies’Art Gallery auctioned 75 of his oils.

Studied

Cincinnati, 1838-39; London; Antwerp; Paris, 1849; Dusseldorf (Germany) with A. Achenbach, 1849-54; Rome (Italy), 1854-59

Member

ANA, 1860; NA, 1861 (pres. 1874-77); Artists Fund Society; Century Assn, 1862

Exhibited

AIC; Cincinnati Art Academy, 1839 (landscape, 1841); NAD, 1846, 1860-1911 (first prize, 1883); Am.Art- Union, 1847; Brooklyn AA, 1861-87; Centenn. Expo, Phila., 1876 (bronze medal); PAFA Ann., 1853-67, 1879, 1904; Paris Expo, 1889 (prize); Pan-Am Expo, Buffalo, 1901 (silver medal); St. Louis Expo, 1904

Work

WMA; NMAA; Cincinnati AM; BM; MMA; Newark Museum; AmonCarter Museum; CGA; the Century Assoc., NYC; Denver AM; Joslyn Museum; Shelburne (VT) Museum