Known for his rustic landscapes and turbulent seascapes, J. Antonio Hekking was a talented artist who worked in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born in the Netherlands, Hekking immigrated to the United States as a boy and settled in Cherry Valley, New York, with his family. He fought in the Union Army during the Civil War and left for Paris shortly thereafter to study with the leading painters of the day. Upon his return, he created panoramic mountain views and pastoral forest scenes of New York, Connecticut, the Adirondacks, the White Mountains, and the Jersey Shore in the realistic mode of the Hudson River School. His detailed, naturalistic work appealed to prominent collectors and critics, and Hekking exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Detroit Art Association and Art Museum, the Michigan State Fair, the Cosmopolitan Art Association, the Utica Art Association, the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, the Crystal Palace in New York (1853), and the Chicago Industrial Exposition (1876). Today, his work is featured in the New York Historical Society and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Biography courtesy of Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, www.antiquesandfineart.com/questroyal