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Thomas Doughty
(American, 1793 - 1856)
View on the Brandywine River: Gilpin's Paper Mill
ca. 1825-1830
12 7/8 × 17 7/8 in. (32.7 × 45.4 cm)
2005.10
Purchased with Museum funds, 2005
The former snuff mill near Wilmington, Delaware, converted by the Gilpin family to a paper mill, provided Thomas Doughty with an ideal combination of elements for a painting. The natural beauty of the site—as well as similar scenes along the Schuylkill and Connecticut Rivers—inspired Doughty and other early 19th-century American artists as they built a native school of painting. The city’s powerful network of Quakers, including the Gilpins, helped to sustain the Philadelphia-based Doughty and others. The subject matter must have proven popular with local art patrons as Doughty repeatedly executed and exhibited different versions of his mill paintings.
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