Gallery

William Preston Phelps was born on March 6, 1848 in Dublin, NH. Phelps was a fine American painter who found his greatest inspiration in the landscapes of the Monadnock Region of the Granite State. In 1868, he married Anna Marie Kittredge, and together, they had two children, Ina and Edward.

After a modest beginning as a sign painter, in 1875, Phelps held his first exhibition in Lowell, Massachusetts. Several area businessmen reacted to this exhibition by purchasing paintings and assembling a fund which enabled the burgeoning artist to have European study and training. From 1875 through 1877 he was in Munich where he became a well known member of the American contingent of art students.

After a brief return to the United States in 1878, during which he exhibited for the first time at the National Academy of Design, Phelps returned to Europe. Once again in Munich, he became a co-founder of the Munich Art Club along with Walter Shirlaw, David Neal, Frank Duveneck, and William Merritt Chase. This second time in Europe lasted five years and was divided into three years in Munich and two in Paris. Upon his return to America, Phelps had a studio near Tremont Street in Boston where he associated with John J. Enneking, Alfred Ordway, and Benjamin Champney.

In 1890 he reacquired the family farm near Chesham, New Hampshire and thereafter worked prodigiously painting the area’s bucolic landscapes. In March of 1903, an exhibition featuring 60 paintings by Phelps was organized by Beacon Art Galleries of Boston, MA.  Many of these paintings were landscapes of Mount Monadnock, some of which were winter scenes. Late in 1904, Boston’s Leonard & Company promoted an exhibition and sale of 76 paintings by William Preston Phelps, which was followed by an auction sale on December 3, 1904.

Karl Gabosh, the main authority to research Phelps’ career has noted that “some of Phelps’ finest works are indeed of Monadnock,” and Ina Haywood, writing in the Introduction to the final 1917 Sales Catalogue of Phelps’ work noted that “he deservedly merits the appellation by which he is so often designated, the painter of Monadnock.” Another observer of Phelps’ work was Charles Hurd, who noted the importance of Mount Monadnock to the artist:

“Phelps, during a visit some 2-3 years before he reacquired his homestead, saw the mountain (Monadnock) through new eyes, and was to be excited and inspired by what he saw. Here were the things he had known from boyhood, which had grown into his soul, and which though they had laid dormant for years had awakened to vigorous life. From that moment he worked under the influence of a new inspiration. He studied the mountain with eyes of a lover. In sunshine and shadow, in storm and in calm he watched and noted and painted.”

Mount Monadnock from Stone Pond is among the finest known examples of Phelps’ work. It survives in excellent condition and exemplifies the fine technique and refined aesthetic sensibility that are the hallmarks of his best works.

Other fine examples of his may be seen in many corporate, private, and public collections including the West Point Museum, USMA, West Point, New York; Whistler House, Lowell Historical Society, Lowell, Massachusetts; William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut; the New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, New Hampshire; and the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont.

After several years of declining health, Phelps passed away on January 6, 1923 in Concord, NH. His funeral was held in Lowell, MA and he was buried beside his wife at Edson Cemetery, 1375 Gorham Street, Lowell, MA.

Signature

 

Photo Credit
Charles O. Vogel

References
Biographical information courtesy of Charles O. Vogel
Independent research by the authors
Rediscovering Some New England Artists