Moses Wight
Encyclopedia
Moses Wight was an artist in Boston
, Massachusetts
and Paris
in the 19th-century. He painted portraits of Edward Everett
, Louis Agassiz
, Charles Sumner
, Alexander von Humboldt
, and other notables.
, nearby several other artists -- Thomas Ball
; W.M. Brackett; A. Clark; Thomas Edwards
; J. Greenough; William H. Hanley; A.G. Hoit
; Charles Hubbard
; W. Hudson, Jr.; D.C. Johnston
; A.C. Morse; and Edward Seager. Around this time he painted works such as "Laying the Corner-Stone of the Beacon Hill Reservoir
, Nov. 22, 1847" ("containing portraits of the mayor, Josiah Quincy, Jr.
; ex-mayors Josiah Quincy, Sr.
, and Samuel T. Armstrong
; Nathan Hale
, Thomas B. Curtis and James F. Baldwin, water commissioners; city marshal Francis Tukey, and members of the city council and government.")
Wight travelled to Europe in 1851, and studied with Antoine A.E. Hébert
and Léon Bonnat
in Paris. While in Berlin in 1852, Wight painted portraits of D.D. Barnard
and Alexander von Humboldt. Edward Everett, also in Berlin at the time, facilitated the coveted Humboldt commission for Wight: "I reflect with pleasure that it was in my power, through the medium of my much valued friend Mr. D.D. Barnard, then our Minister at Berlin, to aid a meritorious young artist, Mr. M. Wight, in procuring an opportunity to paint the portrait of Baron Humboldt. This of course was a favor not likely to be asked of a person of such eminence, whose time was so precious, and whom so many artists were eager to paint and to model. Mr. Wight, however, succeeded so well in a portrait of Mr. Barnard, who enjoyed the intimacy of Baron Humboldt, that, on seeing it, he consented to give our young countryman four long sittings." By the artist's own account "when the portrait ... was completed, many persons, citizens and strangers, as well as artists, and among the latter Cornelius
... and Rauch
, together with personal friends of Humboldt, came to see it. Before the portrait was sent to America it was exhibited to the citizens in the grand hall of the Art Union of Berlin.
Back in Boston, he exhibited at the gallery of the New England Art Union
in 1852; and the Boston Athenaeum in 1856. Around 1862 he kept a studio on Washington Street
. "In the great fire of 1872
his studio was burned with many valuable canvases."
Through his career, other portrait subjects included:
He received good press. Of his portrait of Everett, one reviewer praised: "the position is easy, graceful, and natural; the expression faithful and spirited; the face and figure show Mr. Everett as he now is. Mr. Wight is undoubtedly a painter of great ability, and this portrait alone, would gain him a very high reputation."
He also had his critics, however. For instance, in 1879 "the life-size picture of 'Eve at the Fountain,' painted by Mr. Wight, now on exhibition at Childs & Co.'s gallery, is an attempt at a great work in art, but we can hardly regard it as a successful one. With all the adventitious aids given to it in the drapery about it, and the arrangement of the light, which must greatly heighten its effect, the picture seems to us to come far short of what it ought to be. We doubt whether Eve could be represented except in marble to satisfy our ideal of the innocence, purity and dignity that ought to belong to the fair mother of the race."
Moving permanently to Paris, around 1890 he lived on the Boulevard Rochechouart. In 1886 Wight married Leonide Labat (b.1831). He died in 1895.
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the 19th-century. He painted portraits of Edward Everett
Edward Everett
Edward Everett was an American politician and educator from Massachusetts. Everett, a Whig, served as U.S. Representative, and U.S. Senator, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and United States Secretary of State...
, Louis Agassiz
Louis Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was a Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist, geologist and a prominent innovator in the study of the Earth's natural history. He grew up in Switzerland and became a professor of natural history at University of Neuchâtel...
, Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
, Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
, and other notables.
Biography
Wight "began the practice of art as a profession in 1845 ... devoting himself chiefly to portrait-painting." He kept a studio in Boston on Tremont RowTremont Row
Tremont Row in Boston, Massachusetts, was a short street that flourished in the 19th and early-20th centuries. It was located near the intersection of Court, Tremont, and Cambridge streets, in today's Government Center area. It existed until the 1920s, when it became known as Scollay Square...
, nearby several other artists -- Thomas Ball
Thomas Ball (artist)
Thomas Ball was an American artist and musician. His work has had a marked influence on monumental art in the United States, especially in New England.-Life:...
; W.M. Brackett; A. Clark; Thomas Edwards
Thomas Edwards (artist)
Thomas Edwards was an artist in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in portraits. Born in London and trained at the Royal Academy, he worked in Boston in the 1820s-1850s, and in Worcester in the 1860s.-Biography:...
; J. Greenough; William H. Hanley; A.G. Hoit
Albert Gallatin Hoit
Albert Gallatin Hoit was an American painter who lived in Boston, Massachusetts. He painted portraits of William Henry Harrison, Daniel Webster and Brenton Halliburton.-Biography:...
; Charles Hubbard
Charles Hubbard (artist)
Charles Hubbard was an artist in Boston, Massachusetts in the 19th century. He kept a studio on Tremont Row and was affiliated with the Boston Artists' Association. He served as state senator 1851-1852.-Biography:...
; W. Hudson, Jr.; D.C. Johnston
David Claypoole Johnston
David Claypoole Johnston was an 19th-century American cartoonist, printmaker, painter and actor from Boston, Massachusetts...
; A.C. Morse; and Edward Seager. Around this time he painted works such as "Laying the Corner-Stone of the Beacon Hill Reservoir
Beacon Hill Reservoir
The Beacon Hill Reservoir in Boston, Massachusetts provided water to Beacon Hill from Lake Cochituate. It could hold . By 1876, the reservoir no longer distributed water, but rather functioned as a storage facility; it was dismantled in the early 1880s.-History:The reservoir occupied a site on the...
, Nov. 22, 1847" ("containing portraits of the mayor, Josiah Quincy, Jr.
Josiah Quincy, Jr.
Josiah Quincy, Jr. was mayor of Boston , as was his father Josiah Quincy III and grandson Josiah Quincy . He was the author of Figures in the Past . As a member of the Massachusetts State Legislature in 1837, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Massachusetts Board of Education...
; ex-mayors Josiah Quincy, Sr.
Josiah Quincy III
Josiah Quincy III was a U.S. educator and political figure. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives , Mayor of Boston , and President of Harvard University...
, and Samuel T. Armstrong
Samuel Turell Armstrong
Samuel Turell Armstrong was a U.S. political figure. Born in 1784 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, he was a bookseller in Boston, and among other works published a stereotype edition of Scott's family Bible, which was widely circulated.Orphaned at the age of thirteen, Samuel Armstrong attended public...
; Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale (journalist)
Nathan Hale was an American journalist and newspaper publisher who introduced regular editorial comment as a newspaper feature.-Life and career:...
, Thomas B. Curtis and James F. Baldwin, water commissioners; city marshal Francis Tukey, and members of the city council and government.")
Wight travelled to Europe in 1851, and studied with Antoine A.E. Hébert
Ernest Hébert
thumb|220px|Self-portrait, aged 17.Antoine Auguste Ernest Hébert was a French painter and academic.He was born in Grenoble and died in La Tronche. His painting Mal'aria was exhibited in the Salon of 1850-1851, and now hangs in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris...
and Léon Bonnat
Léon Bonnat
Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat was a French painter.He was born in Bayonne, but from 1846 to 1853 he lived in Madrid, where his father owned a bookshop. While tending his father's shop, he copied engravings of works by the Old Masters, developing a passion for drawing...
in Paris. While in Berlin in 1852, Wight painted portraits of D.D. Barnard
Daniel D. Barnard
Daniel Dewey Barnard was a U.S. Representative from New York.Born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Barnard attended the common schools and was graduated from Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1818.He studied law....
and Alexander von Humboldt. Edward Everett, also in Berlin at the time, facilitated the coveted Humboldt commission for Wight: "I reflect with pleasure that it was in my power, through the medium of my much valued friend Mr. D.D. Barnard, then our Minister at Berlin, to aid a meritorious young artist, Mr. M. Wight, in procuring an opportunity to paint the portrait of Baron Humboldt. This of course was a favor not likely to be asked of a person of such eminence, whose time was so precious, and whom so many artists were eager to paint and to model. Mr. Wight, however, succeeded so well in a portrait of Mr. Barnard, who enjoyed the intimacy of Baron Humboldt, that, on seeing it, he consented to give our young countryman four long sittings." By the artist's own account "when the portrait ... was completed, many persons, citizens and strangers, as well as artists, and among the latter Cornelius
Peter von Cornelius
Peter von Cornelius was a German painter.Cornelius was born in Düsseldorf.His father, who was inspector of the Düsseldorf gallery, died in 1799, and the young Cornelius was stimulated to extraordinary exertions...
... and Rauch
Christian Daniel Rauch
Christian Daniel Rauch was a German sculptor. He founded the Berlin school of sculpture, and was the foremost German sculptor of the 19th century.-Biography:Rauch was born at Arolsen in the Principality of Waldeck...
, together with personal friends of Humboldt, came to see it. Before the portrait was sent to America it was exhibited to the citizens in the grand hall of the Art Union of Berlin.
Back in Boston, he exhibited at the gallery of the New England Art Union
New England Art Union
The New England Art Union was established in Boston, Massachusetts for "the encouragement of artists, the promotion of art" in New England and the wider United States. Edward Everett, Franklin Dexter, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow served as officers of the board. The short-lived but lively...
in 1852; and the Boston Athenaeum in 1856. Around 1862 he kept a studio on Washington Street
Washington Street (Boston)
Washington Street is a street originating in downtown Boston, Massachusetts that extends southwestward to the Massachusetts-Rhode Island state line. The majority of it was built as the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike in the early nineteenth century...
. "In the great fire of 1872
Great Boston Fire of 1872
The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was Boston's largest urban fire, and still ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history. The conflagration began at 7:20 p.m. on November 9, 1872, in the basement of a commercial warehouse at 83—87 Summer Street in Boston,...
his studio was burned with many valuable canvases."
Through his career, other portrait subjects included:
- Louis Agassiz
- Samuel AppletonSamuel AppletonSamuel Appleton was an American merchant and philanthropist, active in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Great Britain. The city of Appleton, Wisconsin was named in his honor by Amos Lawrence.-Biography:...
- Daniel D. Barnard
- Henry H. ChildsHenry H. ChildsHenry H. Childs was an American politician who served as Lieutenant Governor for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1843....
- Thomas Dowse
- Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
- Edward Everett
- Prof. Pierce
- Josiah Quincy III
- James Savage
- Charles Sumner
- Alexander von Humboldt
- Emory WashburnEmory WashburnEmory Washburn was a United States political figure. Born in 1800 in Leicester, Massachusetts, Washburn was the 22nd Governor of Massachusetts from 1854 to 1855. He was elected as a member of the United States Whig Party defeating Henry W. Bishop and Henry Wilson with 46% of the vote...
- Henry WilsonHenry WilsonHenry Wilson was the 18th Vice President of the United States and a Senator from Massachusetts...
He received good press. Of his portrait of Everett, one reviewer praised: "the position is easy, graceful, and natural; the expression faithful and spirited; the face and figure show Mr. Everett as he now is. Mr. Wight is undoubtedly a painter of great ability, and this portrait alone, would gain him a very high reputation."
He also had his critics, however. For instance, in 1879 "the life-size picture of 'Eve at the Fountain,' painted by Mr. Wight, now on exhibition at Childs & Co.'s gallery, is an attempt at a great work in art, but we can hardly regard it as a successful one. With all the adventitious aids given to it in the drapery about it, and the arrangement of the light, which must greatly heighten its effect, the picture seems to us to come far short of what it ought to be. We doubt whether Eve could be represented except in marble to satisfy our ideal of the innocence, purity and dignity that ought to belong to the fair mother of the race."
Moving permanently to Paris, around 1890 he lived on the Boulevard Rochechouart. In 1886 Wight married Leonide Labat (b.1831). He died in 1895.
Further reading
- Tuckerman. Book of artists, 2nd ed. 1867.
- Helmut de Terra. Studies of the Documentation of Alexander von Humboldt: The Philadelphia Abstract of Humboldt's American Travels, Humboldt Portraits and Sculpture in the United States. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 102, No. 6, Studies of Historical Documents in the Library of the American Philosophical Society (Dec. 15, 1958), pp.560-589.