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for James Hope
1819 - 1892
Hope was brought to Canada at age nine by his father after the death of his wife. In 1834, he traveled to Fairhaven VT for a five-year apprenticeship with a wagonmaker. After a year at the Castleton (VT) Seminary, he began to teach art in West Rutland VT and take on portrait commissions. Following two years in Montreal in the late 1840s, he returned to Castleton to teach at the Seminary (1849-52). At this time he began to take up landscape painting, spending his winters in a rented studio in New York City. Once he gave up teaching, he divided his time between New York and Castleton until 1872.
During the Civil War, Hope was a captain and topographical engineer in Vermont's Second Regiment. Discharged for ill health before the end of the war, he began a series of large battle landscapes that ultimately led to a Civil War panorama. In 1870 Hope first saw Watkins Glen, the site of an upstate New York resort. A year after his 1871 election as an Academy Associate, he moved there permanently, building a private studio and gallery. He spent the rest of his life painting views of the glen and a series of landscapes copied from photographs of the Holy Land taken by Charles Bierstadt.
During the Civil War, Hope was a captain and topographical engineer in Vermont's Second Regiment. Discharged for ill health before the end of the war, he began a series of large battle landscapes that ultimately led to a Civil War panorama. In 1870 Hope first saw Watkins Glen, the site of an upstate New York resort. A year after his 1871 election as an Academy Associate, he moved there permanently, building a private studio and gallery. He spent the rest of his life painting views of the glen and a series of landscapes copied from photographs of the Holy Land taken by Charles Bierstadt.
