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Augustus Rockwell

The Syracuse Standard of July 27, 1859, reported that the "accomplished Artist" Augustus Rockwell of Buffalo "left yesterday afternoon for the fishing grounds of the Walton Club" in Brown's Tract.'

Rockwell's party was led by H.H. Thompson of Whitestown who subsequently wrote of later camping trips with Rockwell as his canoe partner. Thompson made no claim for Rockwell's talent as a hunter or fisherman but reported his quick wit when the bottom of their canoe struck a snag on a sunken log. "The water rushed in through a hole an inch in diameter, close to Rockwell's right side. He had a coat over the breach in the twinkling of an eye, and in about seven twinklings more the boat had been beached, unloaded and upturned." Rockwell patched the hole with a cut out from the campers' tin butter pail and some white lead from his artist's box. His experience as a camper is recorded in 4th Lake Camp. The boat is pulled up to shore, the lean-to and cooking pots are set out and firewood is waiting to be lit. Rockwell's minute attention to detail won him distinction in the field of portraiture. This same gift brings a sense of immediacy to the camping scene in 8 Lake. Its careful notation of the manned canoe on the blue waters.

Rockwell followed the group of Hudson River School painters' primarily known for their treatment of lighting effects. The "Luminist" as they were known, used a layering of paint that enabled them to achieve unparalleled success during the middle to end of the nineteenth century. An important artistic development in the 1850's was the invention of chemical pigments, which replaced the earlier mineral-based paints. These new brilliant colors gave artist such as Rockwell more flexibility and range, especially in depicting the effects of light.

Biographical Information:
"Hot for Brown's Tract," Syracuse Standard Uuly 27, 1859). This news article was quoted from the Utica Herald July 26, 1859).
H.H. Thompson, "Camping Twenty Years Ago," The American Angler, A Weekly Journal of Fish and Fishing, vol. V, no. 15 (April 12,1884), pp. 225230. The article relates Thompson's trip with Rockwell on the Raquette River in July 1862.
H.P. Smith, "Augustus Rockwell," History of Buffalo and Erie Cty (Syracuse, NY.: Mason, 1884), vol.II, p. 89.

Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton

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