A lesser-known painter in the tradition of the Hudson River School, especially Thomas Cole, Jesse Talbot strove to denote both spirituality and manifest destiny in his landscapes, which could be set anywhere from the Natural Bridge of Virginia to the Green Mountains of Vermont.[1] From 1845 to 1847, he lived in Patterson, New Jersey and in that area painted in a romantic style clearly derivative of Thomas Cole, a local landmark, the Passaic Falls. From 1865 until 1876 he was documented as an exhibitor at the National Academy of Design with an address listed as being 840 Broadway, until1873 when it changed to Brooklyn and then in 1876 his home address was shifted to Roundout, NY, up near Kingston, NY. [2]
His work can be seen in the New-York Historical Society, NY; New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, the New Haven Colony Historical Society, New Haven, CT; Lasalle University Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA; New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, NJ; and the Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach, FL.[3]
[1] Bartlett-Cowdry, National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1825-1860, vol. 2.
[2] Naylor, Exhibition of the National Academy, New York, 1861-1900, 1973, page 915
[3] Smithsonian Institution’s Inventory of American Paintings, http://www.siris.si.edu