Highlights

George Nelson Cass (American c. 1825 - 1882)

19th Century Fine Art Legacy

Boston artist, George Cass was born in Canaan, New Hampshire and later set up his studio in Boston. He painted in the nearby rural towns of Hingham and Medfield, really never straying too far from these environs; although he also painted scenes of the Hudson River valley, the Connecticut River, the Tom River and the Great Falls in New Jersey. He was also highly regarded as a still life painter.

In the 1870s, Cass lived, for a while, with George Inness in Medfield, from whom he also took study. It was thought at the time, that Cass did his best work in Medfield. He also had, at one time, a home in Hingham, Massachusetts.

Boston newspapers described Cass’s work as “exquisite in tone and color, a combination of poetry and realism, such as we seldom see upon canvas, and full of feeling and harmony of color and his “purity of tone and fidelity to nature,” in addition to his use of color and atmospheric effects.

If one has to attribute an overall style to Cass’s landscape paintings, it can be said that they were more in the style of the French Barbizon landscape painters, those artists who preferred to paint from nature instead of composing a landscape in the studio. One could add that had an added hint of the Hudson River School.

In the mid-1870s, Cass began working in water color -- they were well-executed and praised in the newspapers. In addition to Medfield, he painted many of his water colors during his time spent in Hingham.

Cass exhibited at the American Art Union (1869); Boston Athenaeum (1863, 1865; National Academy of Design, 1867; and Boston Art Club, 1874-78. He also exhibited and sold his paintings, via auction, at art galleries in Boston, including the galleries of the well-known art dealers Williams & Everett. E. Blakeslee & Co.

Use only with permission of Bedford Fine Art Gallery.

References:

  1. Falk, Peter, ed., 1999, Who Was Who in American Art, Sound View Press, Madison, CT.
  2. Gerdts, William H., 1990, Art Across America, Vol. 1, Cross River Press, Ltd.
  3. www.newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-jan-17-1874-p-5/.
  4. www.newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-mar-07-1874-p-4/.
  5. www.newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-may-06-1874-p-3/.
  6. www.newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-mar-13-1876-p-5/.
  7. www.newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-jan-16-1877-p-4/.
  8. www.newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-apr-30-1877-p-6/.
  9. www.newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-oct-25-1877-p-3/.

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