Vincent Colyer

Vincent Colyer (September 30, 1824 – July 12, 1888) was an American artist noted for his images of the American West. He was a humanitarian who worked with philanthropic and Christian groups; he founded the United States Christian Commission during the American Civil War. He also worked with the U.S. government to try to help freedmen and Native Americans.

Early life and education Colyer was born in the Bloomingdale, New York on September 30, 1824, and grew up in a Quaker family. His faith was the center of his life and the inspiration for many of his activities.

He studied art for four years in New York with John R. Smith, and then was a student at the National Academy. "His 1869 report is important because of its thoroughness, its presumptions, and, most particularly, its influence for more than a decade on officials concerned with the government's response to Alaska natives." Congress approved money for education, to be spent through the Interior Department's Bureau of Education. This reduced the influence of the government's Indian agencies, which tended to establish more paternalistic relationships with Indians. In contrast, "the Bureau of Education encouraged independence and self-reliance," and tended to have more respect for native cultures. (According to one town history, the former name, stated in old land records, was "Ox Pound", another gives it as "Contention Island.") The artist took an active part in civic affairs and served a term in the state House of Representatives.

He moved to Darien, Connecticut in the early 1870s and set up a studio named after his close friend John Kensett. On October 31, 1872, Colyer's wife, Mary Lydia drowned in Long Island Sound after her horse bolted as she was crossing the bridge by buggy to Contentment Island. Kensett got in the water and tried to save her. Soon he became sick (one source said from pneumonia; another said it was "a cold."

Vincent Colyer died at Contentment Island on July 12, 1888.

Appreciation of his art The Douglas Frazer Art gallery offers this assessment: "Vincent Colyer is an acknowledged master of American topographical watercolors. ... His small, painterly watercolor sketches of western forts, early settlements and Indian villages, from New Mexico to Alaska, are an important artistic and visual record. More than two hundred of those sketches, mostly accomplished in the field between 1868 and 1872 while working as a Special Indian Commissioner, are found in major institutional collections."

Referring to works by both Colyer and another artist, the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma noted, "What these images might lack in aesthetic merit is made up for in charm and expressiveness as quick impressions of the West."

Some paintings and drawings Johnson Straits, British Columbia Columbia River (1875) Pueblo Passing Shower (1876) In Pursuit of Joseph, (appeared in Harper's Weekly, August 18, 1877) "Colyer here idealizes infantry power, order, and confidence in the vicinity of Fort Lapwai — probably before the White Bird defeat." Home of the Yackamas, Oregon (sold in 1968 for $16,500) Castle Rock, Entrance to the Cascade Mountains, Columbia River, (lost) "The subject alone gives marked interest to atmospheric effects," the catalogue for the 1873 Cincinnati Industrial Exposition said about the painting. Darien Shore, Connecticut Rainy Day on Connecticut Shore (1881) Winter on Connecticut Shore (1884) Spring Flowers (1885) French Waiter (1886)

Public collections Royal British Columbia Museum and British Columbia Archives, Victoria, British Columbia Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma Albuquerque Museum of Art Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Public exhibitions United States Centennial Commission International Exhibition, (Philadelphia, 1876) National Academy of Design American Art-Union Boston Athenaeum Pennsylvania Academy Maryland Historical Society Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, (1873) Yale School of Fine Arts, (1863) Chicago Interstate Industrial Exposition, (1875) Artist's Fund Society, (ca. 1863-1874) Gilcrease Museum, (July 19 – October 14, 2001) His works were among others in "Watercolors of the American West: Selections from the Gilcrease Museum Permanent Collection".

His books Report of the Services Rendered by the Freed People to the United States Army in North Carolina, in the Spring of 1862, After the Battle of Newbern (1864) Online text here Notes Among the Indians (Putnam's: 1869) Online text here Colyer's Alaska report, which includes responses to inquiries he made and excerpts from official reports on Alaska, appears as appendix D to the Indian commissioner's annual report, 41st Cong., 2d Sess., 1869, H.E.D. 1, Pt. 3, pp. 975–1058 (Serial 1414)."

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