Artist

Thomas Waterman Wood

born Montpelier, VT 1823-died New York City 1903
Born
Montpelier, Vermont, United States
Died
New York, New York, United States
Biography

Wood grew up in the new town of Montpelier, Vermont. As a young man he worked in his father's cabinet shop. His art education was largely self-acquired: at first he painted signs, made patent drawings for inventors, and attempted some portraits. He may have also studied with Chester Harding in 1846 and 1847, and later he worked in Düsseldorf. By 1852 he had opened a studio in New York, continuing his portrait practice, and had built a summer home overlooking Montpelier. After a year in Europe in 1857, he moved to the South and began to do the genre pieces for which he is best known: popular conceptions of democratic America, lauding unpretentious, rural ways. He continued to paint these subjects after moving back to New York in 1866. Wood was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1871 and served as president for eight years. He continued to spend summers in Montpelier and late in life founded and donated his collection to the Wood Art Gallery in the town.

William H. Truettner and Roger B. Stein, editors, with contributions by Dona Brown, Thomas Andrew Denenberg, Judith K. Maxwell, Stephen Nissenbaum, Bruce Robertson, Roger B. Stein, and William H. Truettner Picturing Old New England: Image and Memory (Washington, D.C.; New Haven, Conn; and London: National Museum of American Art with Yale University Press, 1999)

Works by this artist (5 items)

John Alexander, The Cake Walk, 1985, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James F. Dicke Family, 2014.11.1
The Cake Walk
Date1985
oil on canvas
Not on view
Welcome to My World
Date1982
watercolor and gouache on heavy off-white paper
Not on view
John Alexander, Conversations with a Spider, 1980, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art ( Museum purchase, William A. Clark Fund), 2020.20.5
Conversations with a Spider
Date1980
oil on canvas
Not on view
John Alexander, Living Your Life in a Goldfish Bowl, 1985, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of United Stationers, Inc., 1995.70.1
Living Your Life in a Goldfish Bowl
Date1985
oil on canvas
Not on view