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Carlton worked as a portrait and genre painter in Boston in the mid-1800s. Not much is known of his artistic education, but he exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum and at New York’s American Art Union.
Exhibition History“Altered States: Alcohol and Other Drugs, 1800-1992,” Strong Museum, Rochester, NY, October 23, 1992 – August 26, 1995.
Bibliography“American Paintings and Sculpture,” Christie’s East (Auct. cat. New York, October 7, 1997), p. 15, cat. no. 22, ill.
Artist
William Carlton
Cider Mill
Date1850-1860
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 33 × 40 × 1 3/4 in. (83.8 × 101.6 × 4.4 cm)
Sight: 29 × 36 in. (73.7 × 91.4 cm)
Object numberN0427.1955
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextCider making was common among farmers in 19th-century New York because it provided hard cider and vinegar for home consumption and barter. Following the Civil War, the demand for farm-made hard cider diminished as a result of temperance and inexpensive distilled liquor. In this painting William Tolman Carlton capture a nostalgic scene of a traditional chore throughout the rural northeast, but one that was beginning to disappear. Carlton worked as a portrait and genre painter in Boston in the mid-1800s. Not much is known of his artistic education, but he exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum and at New York’s American Art Union.
Exhibition History“Altered States: Alcohol and Other Drugs, 1800-1992,” Strong Museum, Rochester, NY, October 23, 1992 – August 26, 1995.
Bibliography“American Paintings and Sculpture,” Christie’s East (Auct. cat. New York, October 7, 1997), p. 15, cat. no. 22, ill.
On View
Not on viewc.1870
c.1909
c. 1936
c. 1937-1945
