HAMILTON AUCTION GALLERIES

            Born in Staindrop, County Durham, England, William Rickarby Miller was a landscape painter, and especially appreciated for watercolor painting, which he sold through the American Art Union. A contemporary of the Hudson River School painters, he is not considered a main part of that group that strove for dramatic effect, because his work is more intimate and story-telling in intent. By 1845 he had immigrated to the United States, accompanied by a sister and two brothers. After some difficulty launching a career, he received several commissions for watercolors through the American Art-Union. He began to exhibit at the National Academy of Design between 1844 and 1845. From 1851 to 1862 Miller worked out of his home at 1 Perry Street and from 1868 to 1877 he lived in his studio in the Dodworth Building at 806 Broadway.[1] Magazine assignments began to decline toward the latter part of the 1860s and Miller considered dropping his career and joining the M. Knoedler Company (once Goupil). However, his career as an artist was saved through the patronage of Henry W. Gear, an artists' supplier, George M. Wing, an agent, and John L. Chambers, a secretary. Around 1873 he spent years organizing a book on American landscapes that he titled "A Thousand Gems," [2]but it was never published. However the drawings provided much of the material for is later work in oil. He was a disciplined worker and prolific painter who produced hundreds of watercolors, oils, and pen and ink sketches. Towards the end of his life he led a somewhat secluded life, devoting his time to traveling and to sketching rural scenes. It is believed that he died on one such excursion during July 1893. Almost two hundred examples of his work can be found in the collection of the New York Historical Society.[3]

            The subject of this work is an area of the old Lorillard plantation Mill, which was saved from being paved over when the Lorillard family sold the property to a group of like minded individuals interested in botany that eventually created on that same site the New York Botanical Gardens. [4]

RAB