Skip to main content

Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

American, 1851-1935
Self-taught artist Levi Wells Prentice is best known for his realistic still-life compositions of fruit arranged within a landscape, or abundantly spilling from bushel baskets. Early in his career, he painted portraits and landscapes of the Adirondack Mountain region of Lewis County, New York, where Prentice was born in 1851. Prentice later turned to painting still-life subjects when he moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1883. He was a member of the Brooklyn Art Association and frequently exhibited his paintings there. In addition to his artistic talents, Prentice also designed his own frames and made his own brushes and palettes. Prentice's fruit still lifes are compositions are intended to create dramatic contrasts. The shift between dark background areas and the vibrant hues of the fruit are done to give the compositions an exciting, visual energy. The fruit is presented with clarity and precision. An emphasis is placed on the idea of man vs. nature. The wooden baskets with hand wrought nails represents a structured, man-made object, while the overly ripe fruit represents the fleeting qualities of nature. These paintings also demonstrate Prentice's remarkable skills at rendering color, form, and texture. Noted art historian, William H. Gerdts observed: "there are several works by Prentice in which he achieves a quality of illusionism which is unsurpassed." In 1993, the skillful 'illusionism' of Levi Wells Prentice was celebrated in a retrospective exhibition at the Adirondack Museum in New York. His works continue to receive a high degree of appreciation by collectors today. His works are represented in many museums including the New York State Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Montclair Art Museum, Philbrook Museum of Art and Yale University Art Gallery.
to
2
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
2
784
723
705
695
1
2
Artist: Levi Wells Prentice
River Landscape
By Levi Wells Prentice
Located in New York, NY
Signed lower right: L.W.Prentice.
Category

19th Century Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Autumn Brook
By Levi Wells Prentice
Located in New York, NY
Levi Wells Prentice paints a rock-ringed pool surrounded by dense trees beginning to display autumn color in his oil painting, “Autumn Brook.”
Category

Late 19th Century Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Related Items
Antique American Hudson River School Landscape Cows Oil Painting Gilt Frame 19th
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique Quintessential American Hudson River School landscape by an unknown Hudson River School artist. This painting features its original period gold frame, and a charming scene o...
Category

1860s Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rural Scene 1850, A view of Concord in the distance from Tilton, NH
Located in North Clarendon, VT
Fantastic early New Hampshire landscape by John Rollin Tilton. Pre White Mountain School. View from Tilton NH looking back towards Concord. Oil on canvas - deserves a special place o...
Category

1850s Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Oil

Landscape Drenched in Green, original art, landscape art, Dartmoor art
By Maria Floyd
Located in Deddington, GB
Landscape Drenched In Green is an original painting by Maria Floyd. This work is inspired by the wild and beautiful landscape of Dartmoor in Devon and evokes the memory and experienc...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

1920s Century Country Creek Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Serene early 20th century landscape of a winding creek in verdant country side with a distant farmhouse in the background, by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century), c. 1920. Pre...
Category

1920s Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Hudson River School Seascape at Sunset
Located in Soquel, CA
Luminous Hudson River School landscape of sunset over water with red buoy in foreground and sailing ships in background in the style of Alfred Thompson Briche...
Category

1880s Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Hudson River School Seascape at Sunset
Hudson River School Seascape at Sunset
$3,500 Sale Price
30% Off
H 19.5 in W 27.5 in D 2.5 in
Twilight in the Hills
By William Louis Sonntag Sr. 1
Located in Wiscasett, ME
A luminous Autumn oil on canvas board landscape, probably of the hills in the Hudson River Valley, by the noted American artist William Louis Sonntag (1822-1900). Signed in the lower right. Sonntag was born near Pittsburgh, PA and moved to Cincinnati, OH in the 1840’s to study art. He studied for a brief time with G. Frankenstein at the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Art and his idealized paintings of American wilderness and visionary paintings of imagined European ruins were commercially successful. He traveled twice to Europe in the 1850’s to improve his skills, eventually settling in New York City. He joined the National Academy of Design, where he exhibited his works for forty years. His mature works identify him with the Hudson River School of landscape painters. A romantic and naturalistic painter of his surroundings, Sonntag also created idealized paintings of Roman ruins, recalling his European trips of earlier years. Sonntag was an Associate (1860) and Academician (1861) at the National Academy of Design, and a member of the American Watercolor Society, Artists Fund Society, and the American Art Union...
Category

19th Century Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Oil

19th Century Hudson River School Bucolic Landscape
By John Frederick Kensett
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful example of the Hudson River School romantic bucolic New York autumn landscape with cows foraging. Illegible artist signature on stretcher bar (See enhanced images). Condition: very good; professionally cleaned and minor restoration upper right hand corner where paint was missing. Unframed. Image size: 14"H x 24"W x .75"D Hudson River School was an informal association was America's first so-called school of painting and the dominant landscape style until the Civil War. The name derives from a group of 19th-century landscape painters working in New York state. With realistic composition, they depicted romantic views of unsettled areas of the Hudson River Valley especially lakes, rocky gorges, and forests in the Catskill Mountains. About a fourth of these artists utilized luminism or effects with special lighting techniques to convey lofty emotions through contrasts of light and dark. Included in this Hudson River luminist category were Washington Allston, Albert Bierstadt, William Hart, and Frederic Edwin Church...
Category

1870s Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

19th Century Hudson River School Bucolic Landscape
19th Century Hudson River School Bucolic Landscape
$2,400 Sale Price
20% Off
H 14 in W 24 in D 0.75 in
Mt Shasta Spring Stroll on the River Beneath the Mountain Original Oil on Linen
Located in Soquel, CA
Mt Shasta Spring Stroll on the River Beneath the Mountain Original Oil on Linen A solitary hiker on a trail with Northern California's Mt. Shasta in the distance by Joseph John Engl...
Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Summer Sheep By Natalie Bird
Located in Deddington, GB
original Oil on board Image size: H:14 cm x W:18 cm Sold Unframed Please note that insitu images are purely an indication of how a piece may look Oil on board
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Summer Sheep By Natalie Bird
Summer Sheep By Natalie Bird
$168
H 5.52 in W 7.09 in D 0.4 in
"Grand Manan" Harrison Bird Brown, Maine Landscape, Hudson River School Seascape
By Harrison Bird Brown
Located in New York, NY
Harrison Bird Brown (1831 - 1915) Grand Manan Oil on canvas 12 x 20 inches Signed with initials lower left Harrison Bird Brown was born in 1831 in Portland, Maine, and is best known for his White Mountain landscapes and marine paintings of Maine's Casco Bay...
Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Landscape of Pond and Field After Rain Titled "Cranes After the Rain"
Located in Fredericksburg, VA
This serene landscape by a Hudson River School artist captures the quiet tension between storm and calm, rendered with luminous color and delicate brushwork. A soft sunset glows behi...
Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Late 19th Century Tonalist Landscape -- Afternoon by the Pond
Located in Soquel, CA
Gorgeous tonalist oil painting woman walking in field by pond with home in background by Willis Seaver Adams (American, 1844-1921), circa 1880. Trees and an amazing sky in the background add depth and interest to this beautiful piece. Signed "W. S. Adams" lower right corner. Condition: Previous restoration includes relining of canvas. Frame is vintage gilt molded and wood frame and shows previous repair of molding losses. Image size: 20"H x 24"W. Auctions records for the artist exceed $6,000. Willis Seaver Adams was known for his landscapes of the Connecticut River Valley. A relative recluse for much of his artistic life, his loneliness can be seen in much of his works. Oil miniatures were the focus for almost all of his later works. He is credited with over 425 oils, watercolors, and drawings. Willis Seaver was born in 1844 on a farm in Suffield, near the Connecticut River. He intermittently attended the Suffield Academy, and always wanted to be a painter. A wealthy doctor became his patron, and financed his studies in 1868 at the Royal Academy in Antwerp. When the doctor passed away, Adams returned home and struggled to make a living painting. After working for a photographer for three years, he opened his own studio. Adams helped organize Cleveland's first watercolor exhibit in 1876. Soon thereafter, he completed a portrait of Rutherford B. Hayes, then governor of Ohio, prior to his becoming President of the United States. This portrait enhanced Adams notoriety. In 1878, Adams traveled to Italy where he opened a studio in Venice, and became friendly with neighbor James Whistler. Prior to returning to Springfield, Adams lived in Florence, Italy for three years. He returned to became an instructor for the Springfield Art Association, and began to exhibit his works at the galleries of James D. Gill. His first one-man exhibit was held there in 1894. Other successful exhibitions took place in Chicago, New York, and Boston. Although his works garnered respectable prices and reflected his success, Adams felt he was due more recognition. In 1906, he moved to Greenfield, Massachusetts and converted a barn into a studio. There, he fell into relative obscurity, accompanied mainly by his dog, Collie. In 1921, Adams passed away. Examples of Willis Adams works can be seen at the Kent Memorial Library, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Suffield Academy. Several Suffield residents are thought to own Adams paintings.
Category

1880s Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Previously Available Items
"Gooseberries, " Levi Wells Prentice, Hudson River School Forest Still Life
By Levi Wells Prentice
Located in New York, NY
Levi Wells Prentice (1851 - 1935) Gooseberries, circa 1899 Oil on canvas 6 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches Signed lower right Provenance: Donna Schlesak, Burlington, Wisconsin Self-taught ar...
Category

1890s Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Adirondack Scene
By Levi Wells Prentice
Located in Saratoga Springs, NY
Signed lower right. Levi Wells Prentice was born in the Adirondack Mountains of New York in 1851. This self-taught artist began painting landscapes of the area in the 1870's, when ...
Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Peaches with Fly
By Levi Wells Prentice
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Still life, fruit, signed and dated lower right
Category

Late 19th Century Levi Wells Prentice Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Levi Wells Prentice paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Levi Wells Prentice paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Levi Wells Prentice in canvas, fabric, oil paint and more. Not every interior allows for large Levi Wells Prentice paintings, so small editions measuring 21 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Albert Bierstadt, William Rickarby Miller, and Ralph Albert Blakelock. Levi Wells Prentice paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $8,000 and tops out at $8,000, while the average work can sell for $8,000.

Recently Viewed

View All