Quidor, John

Quidor, John

(kĭdôr`), 1801–81, American painter, b. Tappan, N.Y., studied with J. W. Jarvis. Little appreciated in his own time, he was subsequently accorded a place among the best early American artists. He is represented in the Brooklyn Museum by three paintings, Dorothea, Money Diggers, and Wolfert's Will. He is probably best known for his scenes inspired by the writings of Washington Irving, e.g., Ichabod Crane Pursued by the Headless Horseman (Yale Univ.). Quidor often provided a mysterious romantic setting for scenes in which he mingled macabre elements with an earthy humor.

Bibliography

See study by J. Baur (1942).

Quidor, John

(1801–81) painter; born in Tappan, N.Y. His family moved to New York City (c. 1811), he painted signs for fire coaches, and he studied with John Wesley Jarvis (c. 1814–22). He lived on a farm in Illinois (c. 1847), where he painted religious themes; later he moved to Jersey City. His work is surrealistic and based on the literary themes of James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving, as in Ichabod Crane Pursued by the Headless Horseman (c. 1828).