Jasper Francis Cropsey

American, 1823–1900

BiographyBorn on Staten Island, New York, on 18 February 1823, Cropsey was apprenticed to the New York architect Joseph Trench from 1837 to 1842. During this time, he also studied watercolor painting with the English artist Edward Maury, and received encouragement for his oil painting from three prominent American artists, Henry Inman (1801-1846), William Sidney Mount (1807-1868), and William T. Ranney (1813-1857). In 1843, Cropsey began his own architectural practice in New York, exhibited his first oil painting at the National Academy of Design, and visited Greenwood Lake and Lake Wawayanda for the first time. He was elected an associate of the Academy in 1844, and a full member in 1851. Cropsey spent the winters working in his studio and, except for several extended European visits (1844-49, to England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, and Italy; 1856-63, to England), spent summers traveling and sketching in New England, New York State, and New Jersey. In 1847 he married Maria Cooley of West Milford, New Jersey. In 1869 he completed construction on his home, "Aladdin," in Warwick, New York, just north of Greenwood Lake, spending the warmer months there through 1884. In 1885 he bought a house in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and lived there until his death on 22 June 1900.

Besides his long-term association with the National Academy, Cropsey was elected an honorary professional member of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1854, was elected to the Artists' Fund Society in 1864, and helped found the American Water Color Society in 1867. He was a regular exhibitor at the National Academy and the Water Color Society, and three of his paintings were included in the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. He was made a fellow of the London Society of Science, Literature and Art in 1892. Although Cropsey was in London during the early years of the Civil War, he was a sympathetic and active supporter of the Union cause, and in 1864, he donated paintings to Sanitary Fairs in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and New York, which raised funds to support the Union Army's medical services.

Cropsey practiced intermittently as an architect (1837-42, 1843-ca.1846, and from 1863 onwards) and painted at least one still life and several portraits, but he was best known for his colorful autumnal landscapes.