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Jervis McEntee was a landscape painter born on July 14, 1828 in Rondout (Kingston), NY. He was a popular member of the Hudson River School. McEntee studied with Frederic Church in New York City in 1850, but he did not dedicate himself to a painting career until 1855 when he was 27 years old. In 1858 he opened his studio in New York City, and in 1859 he made a European tour with Sanford Robinson Gifford. He spent much of his time at Rondout and in the nearby Catskills, often traveling with Worthington Whittredge.

His works were typically small in size, and he often included passages of poetry when exhibiting them. His painting style changed through the years from the traditional Hudson River style to incorporate the techniques of the Impressionists.

He became a member of the National Academy of Design in 1861, where he also exhibited from 1861 until 1890. In addition, he exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Association, the Boston Art Club, the Boston Athenaeum, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He was a member of the Century Association and maintained a studio in New York City’s Tenth Street Studio Building.

Jervis McEntee died on January 27, 1891. His funeral was held three days later in Kingston, NY, at the family dwelling near his home studio on the Weinberg (known today as West Chestnut Street). The exercises were conducted by the Rev. Dr. Van Slyke, of the Main Street Reformed Church and the Rev. Henry W. Sherwood, of the Wurts Street Baptist Church. Eulogistic remarks were made by Professor John Weir, of Yale College. Interment took place at Wiltwyck Cemetery in Kingston, NY.

McEntee’s work has been preserved at the National Gallery or Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Peabody Institute.

Obituary From The Philadelphia Times
Philadelphia, PA / Thursday, January 29, 1891 / Page 4 / PERSONAL AND PERTINENT

JERVIS MCENTEE, who died on Tuesday at his home in Rondout, N. Y., was one of the truest of American landscape painters. No one has ever expressed the poetry of the American autumn as he did. He painted the beautiful meadows and the still more beautiful mountains near his birthplace in summer also, but the autumn was his characteristic mood– the gray skies, the somber coloring, the melancholy splendor of the waning year. Mr. McEntee was born at Rondout, where his father had a beautiful place overlooking the Hudson, in 1828. He studied under Church and was elected a National Academician in 1861. That is nearly his whole biography, but the man’s character is told in the quiet dignity and beauty and poetic imagination of his pictures.

Signature

Images of Jervis McEntee

Image Credit
Right: Courtesy of Charles O. Vogel

Reference
Independent research by the authors
Who Was Who in American Art