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On Chesapeake Bay, by Arthur Quartley, 1875. Oil on canvas. 14 51/64 x 26 27/32 in. (37.6 x 68.2 cm)
Maryland Historical Society, Accession: 1990-23.
Copyright
Seascape (View of the Maryland Coast), by Arthur Quartley, 1874. Oil on canvas. 12 23/64 x 23 15/16 in. (31.4 x 60.8 cm.) Maryland Historical Society, Accession: m1964-9-1.
Copyright
Off the Isle of Shoals, by Arthur Quartley, 1850-1886. Oil on canvas. 26 1/64 x 44 11/64 in. (66.1 x 112.2 cm.) Maryland Historical Society, Accession: 1986-75.
Copyright
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Medium/Discipline: Painting
Birthplace: Paris, France
Place of Death: New York
Maryland Affiliation: Active while in residence
Prominent Theme: Marine; Seascapes
Places of Residence: Paris, 1839-1851; Peekskill, NY, 1851-62; Baltimore, Maryland 1862-1875; New York 1875-1886
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: White
Biography: A resident of Baltimore for little more than a decade, Quartley was so impressed by Maryland's scenic Chesapeake Bay, ocean and rivers that he drew on this subject matter after he departed Maryland for New York. Arthur Quartley was born in Paris, son of an English engraver, but moved to Peekskill, New York with his family when he was 14 years old. Throughout his youth, he studied drawing with his father who demanded that each of his sons create two drawings each week. Quartley was apprenticed to a sign painter at age 17, and was soon able to move to Baltimore where he had family and founded an interior design firm in 1862. The firm, Emmart and Quartley, "did only high grade work and were regarded as the best decorators in the city." (C. G. Quartley, reproduced in Dictionary of American Biography, p. 296) During his time in Baltimore, he began to paint marine scenes and had a successful show and sale at the photographic studio of Norval H. Busey. Scholar Elizabeth Johns has said that Quartley's work reveals his familiarity with the Dutch marine tradition, in composition, light and color. (350 Years) In 1873, he became a full-time painter. He returned to New York in about 1875, where he continued to paint marine scenes, this time of New York Harbor, bays off Long Island and the New Hampshire Isle of Shoals.
Quartley was a pallbearer at renowned Neo-Classical sculptor William Henry Rinehart's funeral, along with William T. Walters, Francis Blackwell Mayer and Andrew J. H. Way, all figures central to Maryland art history in the 19th Century.
One of his works resides in the collection of the National Academy of Design. In 1879 he was elected an associate of the National Academy; in 1886, an academician. He was also one of the early members of the Society of American Artists, and a member of the Water Color and Artists' Fund Societies.
Art-related Employment: sign painter; interior decorator; painter
Selected References: American Council of Learned Societies, Dictionary of American Biography (New York: C. Scribner's Sons), 1928-58.
Benjamin, S. G. W. Our American Artists (New York, London: Garland Publishing, Inc.), 1879, 1881, 1977.
Dean, Mary A. [et al.] 350 Years of Art & Architecture in Maryland (College Park : Art Gallery, and Gallery of the School of Architecture, University of Maryland), 1984.
The J. Hall Pleasants Files at the Maryland Historical Society
Maryland Institutions Holding Artworks: Maryland Historical Society
Multiple-Artist Exhibitions: National Academy of Design Exhibition of 1877, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884
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