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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 view
c. 1960-1969
