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About John F. Murphy
At the age of fifteen, John Francis Murphy went west with his family to Chicago, where he began painting billboards. By 1874, he had moved to New York, first to sketch in the Adirondacks (where he met Winslow Homer), then to open a studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York City. An early work, Mountain Landscape (Private collection) shows Murphy’s roots in the Hudson River School tradition. Beginning in 1876, he showed his works regularly at the National Academy of Design. His first one-man show was at Doll and Richards Gallery in Boston in 1882. 1885 marks his winning of a Second Hallgarten Prize, and two years later he was named a full academician. Finally, in 1886, Murphy made it to Europe. In the 1890s, Murphy worked in his studio at Arkville, in the Catskills, not far from Alexander H. Wyant. Two of Murphy’s paintings appeared in the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.
From a basically topographical landscape style, Murphy moved to a broadly brushed, atmospheric tonalism that recalls the works of George Inness. Called by contemporaries "the American Corot," he was attracted to desolate farmyards, picturesque fences, and warm, late-summer light. In his time, Murphy was regarded by most as a progressive, and critics admired his approach of selecting elements of nature, his simplicity, and his powerful handling. Murphy’s late style, beginning around 1906, is characterized by looser brushwork and an even greater simplicity. He assimilated certain features of impressionism. |
Paintings by John F. Murphy
| Wooded River Landscape |
| oil on canvas: 16 x 22 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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| Fishing at Sunset |
| oil on canvas: 16 1/4 x 24 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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