Edward Nichols was born in Hartford,
Connecticut, studied as a lawyer, but by the age of 30 had abandoned that career
to study art under the Hudson River School artist and architect, Jasper Cropsey.[1]
By 1853 Nichols was exhibiting at the prestigious National Academy of Design in
New York City, and in 1859 was made an Associate Academician of the Academy. The
titles of many of the paintings he exhibited at the N.A.D. provided great
insight as to where and what he painted. In the 1850's he was painting in
Connecticut and north along the Connecticut River as far as the White Mountains
of New Hampshire. By the mid 1860's the artist moved from Hartford, Connecticut
to Peekskill, New York (about 45 miles north of Manhattan) where his subject
matter was of the Hudson River Valley, from Peekskill and its surrounding Hudson
Highlands north to the Catskill Mountains.[2]
Other works of the Rhine Valley in Germany and of the Gulf of Mexico were
listed, but it is not known whether they were done first hand or through
secondary materials. He died in Peekskill in 1871.
Some of the museums his works can be found in include the Mattatuck
Historical Society of Waterbury, Connecticut, the North Hampton Historical
Society, North Hampton, Massachusetts, and Historic Cherry Hill of Albany, New
York.[3]
RAB