John Francis Murphy

American, 1853 - 1921

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Called "the American Corot," J. Francis Murphy was a painter of Tonalist landscapes who was renowned especially for small, intimate views of nature. He was born in Oswego, New York, and moved at the age of fifteen with his family to Chicago. Largely self-taught, he began his career as a stage and scene painter. After settling in New York in 1875, he worked as an illustrator and began to make sketching forays to the Adirondacks and to the area around Orange, New Jersey. His first works were crisp, descriptive images in the style of the Hudson River School, which were based on a direct observation of nature. Later his style became more poetic. Reflecting the influence of the American artists Alexander Wyant and George Inness, he recorded his own emotional responses to his sites through an expressive use of tone and surface texture.Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton
John Francis Murphy Paintings & Art

Francis Murphy was a largely self-taught artist, although he studied briefly at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He was a leading Tonalist painter who was concerned with capturing the emotive poetry of landscapes. He used layers of translucent glazes to create an atmospheric effect. Symbolic subject matter was worked in with bare trees and marshy terrain. In 1866 Murphy worked in Chicago as a scene painter for theater sets and his first oil paintings appeared in 1870. Murphy took an inspiring trip in 1874 to Kenne Valley in the Adirondacks and had to sell most of his paintings to finance his travels. The following year Murphy moved to New York City and worked as a magazine illustrator and an artist for a greeting card company. His paintings were usually started with an overall tone on the canvas that he allowed to dry for up to a year. He worked in a palette of pink and grayish-green with golden browns. His best known work "Landscape" (MET) was sold at an auction in 1918 for $15,600. Murphy died in 1921.

Biography courtesy of The Caldwell Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/caldwell

J. Francis Murphy was America's premier Tonalist, whose landscapes bare his poetic style. Moving away from realistic depictions of nature, Murphy attempted to capture landscape's lyric potential, often applying several layers of glaze to achieve atmospheric effects.

Born in Oswego, New York, Murphy was a self-taught artist whose sensitive temperament drew him toward pastoral scenes. After keeping a studio in New York City for many years, he moved to Arkville, a picturesque town in the Catskills that had once been the home of Thomas Cole. There, Murphy created evocative vignettes of stark meadows and still ponds, pushing his moody style to its expressionistic limits.

Murphy's paintings were highly sought-after during his lifetime, earning praise from collectors and critics alike. He exhibited at all of the leading venues, including the Brooklyn Art Association, the Boston Art Club, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and received prizes from the National Academy of Design, the Society of American Artists, and the World's Fairs of 1893, 1901, 1902, 1904, and 1915. Today, his work is featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Biography courtesy of Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, www.antiquesandfineart.com/questroyal