1823-1900
Apple Blossoms, 1887
Oil on canvas laid on panel
12 1/8 x 21 1/8 in.

When he was only thirteen years old, Jasper Cropsey built an entirely handcrafted model of a house and entered it in a New York competition. Not only did he win an award at the 1837 fair of the Mechanics Institute of the City of New York, he attracted the attention of a local architect who offered him an internship with his firm. Cropsey's native artistic abilities were quickly recognized by his employers, and he was encouraged to work in watercolors and oils.

Cropsey completed his course of study and by 1843 was a practicing architect and artist. His mature painting style was influenced by two extended trips to Europe and the writings of philosophers and aestheticians such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. By the 1850s, Cropsey began to paint what became his specialty - the New England autumn with its glorious and brilliant color. Throughout his life he continued to work in a careful, meticulous manner that no doubt derived from his early architectural training