biographie de Samuel Lancaster GERRY (1813-1891)

Birth place: Boston

Death place: Boston

Addresses: Boston

Profession: Landscape, portrait, genre, still life, and animal painter

Studied: mostly self-taught

Exhibited: frequently at Boston Athenaeum; PAFA; NAD, 1865-82; American Art-Union; Boston AC, 1875-1891

Member: Boston Art Club, 1854 (a founder, pres.)

Comments: Widely regarded as the leader of the White Mountain School during the 1840s, he appears to have assimilated art vision and techniques from A. B. Durand and Thomas Cole, as well as from contacts made during a c.1837-40 trip to France, England, Switzerland, and Italy. Upon his return in 1840, he set up his studio in Boston, from which he launched on many trips to New Hampshire"s Lake District and its White Mountains. Gerry also made two return trips to Italy, in 1850-54 and 1873-75.

Sources: G&W; CAB; Bolton, Portrait Painters in Oil"; Clement and Hutton; Portfolio (Oct. 1943), 44, repros.; Boston BD 1841-42, 1854-59; Swan, BA; Rutledge, PA; Cowdrey, NAD; Cowdrey, AA & AAU. More recently, see Campbell, New Hampshire Scenery, 65-69; For Beauty and for Truth, 53 (w/repro.); 300 Years of American Art, vol. 1, 158; The Boston AC.