JAMES GALE TYLER LANDSCAPE OIL PAINTING 1888 NY 19c

JAMES GALE TYLER LANDSCAPE OIL PAINTING 1888 NY 19c
DETAIL:
- James Gale Tyler
- American, 1855-1931
- A Distant Town
- Signed: J.G. TYLER (lr);
- Oil on FW Devoe Artist Board
- Image size: 12.25 In. by 9 In. inches.
- Condition: Some crazing throughout, most notably to the sky area. Blacklights perfectly. slight wear along edge due to contact with frame. Otherwise Very good to excellent. Fame damage to the frame consistent with age.
Housed in its original 19th century hand carved acanthus leaf wooden/gesso frame. Two original (signed, titled, priced) labels to the verso; Paper label: Reads: Distant Town, ....Tyler Artist, Return to Wittenauer Bros, 579 Broadway N.Y. Price 150.00 -
Label #2: 0hio Centennial Exposition, A Distant Town; Tyler J.G. (in artist hand).
Additional Notes: This is a very rare example of Tyler’s oeuvre.
BACKGROUND:
James Gale Tyler was born in Oswego, NY in 1855, of a long line of sea captain ancestors. His interest in maritime subjects began as a young child, living on Lake Ontario. He moved to New York City at the age of 15, and studied marine painting under Archibald Cary Smith (1837-1911), one of the great marine artists of his day. This was the only formal art training he ever received.
He painted ships, seascapes, and yachting scenes, and quickly gained recognition among art collectors and yachtsmen. Additionally, Tyler worked as an illustrator and contributing writer to publications including
Harper’s, Century, and Literary Digest.
In 1892, an exhibition of 67 paintings by Tyler was held at Fifth Avenue Art Galleries in New York City. (At that time, Tyler maintained a studio in New York.) The following year, Tyler’s monumental oil, painted in 1888, Norman’s Woe, of the famously treacherous reef off Gloucester, MA, was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exhibition, held in Chicago in 1893. The painting traveled from Chicago by rail car to the Art Palace, San Francisco, where it was exhibited at the Midwinter Fair, 1894.
Among Tyler’s most coveted paintings are his yachting scenes, of which he painted a very limited number. These include several compositions devoted to America’s Cup challenge races.
Towards the end of Tyler’s career, he moved to Greenwich, CT and for several years painted a series of oils of clipper ships sailing by moonlight, all very similar in subject matter and style. These dark pictures, however, pale in comparison to his earlier works.
James Gale Tyler moved to Pelham, NY in 1931, where he died later that year.
Tyler’s paintings are in the permanent collections of the Corcoran Gallery, the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Omaha Museum of Art, Mariner’s Museum, Peabody-Essex Museum, and the New York Historical Society, and others.
Condition Report: Some crazing throughout, most notably to the sky area. Blacklights perfectly. slight wear along edge due to contact with frame. Otherwise Very good to excellent. Fame damage to the frame consistent with age.