Vincent Colyer: American Artist and Humanitarian

This monograph on the life of the nineteenth century American artist Vincent Colyer documents all his known and lost work. An established New York portraitist, Colyer's work for humanitarian causes placed him in the heart of two historically significant events-the Civil War and Manifest Destiny. While advocating for freed slaves, carrying out President Grant's Peace Policy with the Indians in the West and officially assessing the newly acquired Territory of Alaska, Colyer continually pursued his art. The hundreds of small watercolors and the paintings that he did during his journeys out West established a place for him in the annals of Western art. Through all the years he maintained a close friendship with Hudson River School painter John Frederick Kensett. Both artists painted scenes from the shore in Darien, Connecticut where they lived and worked.