TABLE OF CONTENTS

Collection Overview

Administrative Information

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Arrangement

Names and Subject Terms

Photographs, circa 1872 - 1915, no date

Sketchbook, 1887-1888, no date

Correspondence, June 17, 1895

Newspaper Clippings, 1923, 1925, 1930, no date

Dwight William Tryon

A Finding Aid to the Dwight William Tryon papers, circa 1872-1930, at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

by Chiaki Sekiguchi Bems

June 24, 2008

Contact Information
The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Smithsonian Institution
Washington. D.C. 20013
Reference Number: 202 633 0533
The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives Website
Reference Email

Administrative Information

Provenance

An anonymous donor and Linda Merrill donated Tryon's papers to the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives in 1989.

Location of Originals

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Related Material

Charles Lang Freer papers housed in the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives include Tryon's correspondence.

Nelson and Henry C. White research material housed in the Archives of American Art include Tryon's correspondence, notes, and photographs.

Alfred Vance Churchill Papers housed in Smith College Archives include Tryon's correspondence.

The Freer Gallery of Art and Smith College Museum of Art are major repositories that house Tryon's work.

Processing Information

Processed by intern Chiaki Sekiguchi Bems. Additional processing by archivist Rachael Cristine Woody on June 24, 2008.

Preferred Citation

Dwight William Tryon papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of an anonymous donor and Linda Merrill, 1989.

Restrictions on Access

Access is by appointment only, Monday through Thursday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Please contact the Archives to make an appointment.

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Biographical Note

American landscape painter Dwight William Tryon was born in Hartford, CT on August 13, 1849. When Tryon was about 2 years old, his father Anson Tryon was killed in a hunting accident and he was raised at his maternal grandparents' home. At the age of fourteen, Tryon began work as a machinist at Colt's Firearms Factory in Hartford to support his mother and himself. He enrolled in evening classes at Hannum's Business School and developed calligraphic skills which supplemented his income.

In 1864 Tryon became a bookkeeper and clerk at Brown and Gross, the finest booksellers in Hartford and a gathering place for local literary people such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain. During his ten-year appointment there, Tryon self-studied art using the bookstore's large stock in art books and made weekend sketching trips to the Connecticut River. In 1872 Tryon was appointed Secretary of the Hartford Art Association and began exhibiting his works. In 1873 he exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York. In that year he married Alice Hepzibah Belden whom he had met in the bookstore.

In December, 1876, the Tryon family moved to Paris, France to pursue art with financial support from the Cheney family, wealthy silk manufacturers in South Manchester, CT. Tryon received formal training under Jacquesson de la Chevreuse, a Barbizon painter Charles-Francois Daubigny, and others. He also attended the École des Beaux-Arts.

On returning to the United States in 1881, Tryon took a studio in New York and taught for several years. In the following year, he became a member of the Society of American Artists. Throughout the 1880s when the Barbizon paintings were highly regarded, Tryon's French-inspired American landscape paintings received international as well as national acclaim, winning him numerous medals and awards. In 1899, Tryon was awarded the Webb prize by the Society of American Artists for The First Leaves, a recognition given annually to the best landscape painting by a young American artist. In the same year, Tryon sold his first painting to Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), a Detroit industrialist and collector, who became Tryon's principal patron.

From 1886 to 1923, Tryon taught at Smith College, MA, as Professor of Art and took charge of the Art Department. He advised on the college's art collection and acted as the department's representative in the New York art world. Tryon resigned from the College in May 1923, and in June of the same year he received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Smith College.

In 1887, the Tryon family built a house ("The Cottage") in Padanaram, a coastal village in South Dartmouth, MA, where they would spend every year from spring to autumn until his death. In Padanaram, Tryon made sketches which he developed into paintings in his New York apartment during the winter months. Tryon also took immense pleasure in fishing and sailing in Padanaram.

In 1904, the Montross Gallery in New York held a one-man show on Tryon's painting, and in 1913 they launched Tryon's Retrospective Exhibition. In 1923, the Freer Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D. C., including a permanent collection of Tryon's paintings.

Tryon died of cancer at his summer house on July 1, 1925, at the age of 75. Upon his death, Tryon bequeathed a large number of his works to Smith College. In September of the following year, the Tryon Gallery at Smith College opened.

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Scope and Content Note

The Dwight William Tryon papers span circa 1872 to 1930 and measure .5 linear feet. The collection contains: nineteen photographs, a sketchbook, a letter, and five newspaper clippings.

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Series Descriptions