QUIDOR, JOHN

born Jan. 26, 1801, Tappan, N.Y., U.S. died Dec. 13, 1881, Jersey City, N.J. U.S. genre painter and artisan. The subjects for 17 of his approximately 35 paintings were drawn from Washington Irving's stories; e.g., Ichabod Crane at the Van Tassel's Ball (1855; Sleepy Hollow Restorations, Inc., Tarrytown, N.Y.) and The Money Diggers (1832; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, N.Y.). Quidor began his career as a painter of tavern signs, parade pennants, and fire engines. This seems to have been his vocation throughout life, for his easel production was small and intermittent. In addition to Irving's works, Quidor used themes from the Bible, Don Quixote, and James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking tales. He also painted occasional landscapes of the Hudson River Valley. His literary paintings were not illustrative; he took fanciful literature as a starting point for an intensely personal interpretation of subject and mood. So much of Quidor's humour and power was achieved by dramatic gesture or exaggerated expression, it has been suggested that he painted from theatrical productions rather than from printed sources. He used flecks of colour in a new way to model flesh and convey atmosphere. Although he received appreciative reviews from contemporary critics, his extraordinary and unrealistic style had little impact on his colleagues, and his work found cool reception at exhibitions. Twentieth-century America, however, has reclaimed him as one of the more intriguing and personal American artists of the 19th century.