Douglas Arthur Teed (1863-1929) stands as a fascinating, if sometimes overlooked, figure in the landscape of American art. Active during a period of significant transition and diversification in artistic styles, Teed carved a unique niche for himself as a Romantic painter. He was particularly celebrated for his evocative Orientalist scenes and landscapes that often shimmered with Impressionistic techniques, all while being deeply rooted in a personal, almost spiritual, engagement with his subjects. His life and work offer a compelling window into the artistic currents of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in America, reflecting both international influences and a distinctly individual sensibility.
Early Life and Formative Influences
Born in New Hartford, New York, in 1863, Douglas Arthur Teed's early environment was anything but conventional, a factor that undoubtedly shaped his artistic imagination. His father, Dr. Cyrus Teed, was a charismatic and controversial figure, an eclectic physician and alchemist who later proclaimed himself a messiah and founded the Koreshan Unity. This communal religious group, established in the late 19th century, held unique cosmological beliefs, including the idea that the universe existed within a hollow Earth.
While Douglas Teed did not fully immerse himself in his father's utopian community in Estero, Florida, the pervasive atmosphere of mysticism, esoteric thought, and the pursuit of an alternative vision of reality during his formative years likely left an indelible mark. This background may have predisposed him towards subjects that were exotic, imbued with a sense of mystery, or allowed for a more imaginative and less literal interpretation of the world. The Koreshan emphasis on a spiritual understanding of existence perhaps resonated with the Romantic inclination to find deeper meaning and emotional truth in art.
Artistic Training and Development
Teed's formal artistic training was diverse, reflecting the ambitions of many American artists of his generation to seek instruction both at home and abroad. He is known to have studied in Rome, a city that had long been a magnet for artists drawn to its classical ruins, Renaissance masterpieces, and the vibrant contemporary art scene. In Italy, Teed would have been exposed to a rich tapestry of artistic traditions. It is noted that he was particularly influenced by the work of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and the broader Barbizon School.
Corot, a pivotal figure in 19th-century French landscape painting, was admired for his lyrical, tonal landscapes that captured subtle atmospheric effects and a poetic sensibility. The Barbizon School painters, including Théodore Rousseau, Jean-François Millet, and Charles-François Daubigny, had moved away from the highly idealized landscapes of Neoclassicism, advocating for a more direct and truthful depiction of nature, often imbued with a sense of rustic charm and quiet dignity. Their emphasis on plein air sketching and capturing the mood of the landscape would have resonated with Teed's developing Romanticism.
Beyond Italy, Teed also spent time in Paris and London, further broadening his artistic horizons. Paris, at this time, was the undisputed center of the art world, a crucible of innovation where Impressionism had revolutionized painting and Post-Impressionist movements were beginning to emerge. London, with its own rich artistic heritage and institutions like the Royal Academy, offered another perspective. These European sojourns were crucial in shaping his technical skills and exposing him to a wide array of artistic philosophies.
Back in the United States, Teed was also influenced by prominent American artists. George Inness, a leading figure in American landscape painting associated with Tonalism and the Hudson River School's later phases, is often cited as a significant influence. Inness, like Corot, was known for his evocative, atmospheric landscapes that emphasized mood and spiritual feeling over precise topographical detail. His work, which often featured soft, hazy light and a harmonious blending of colors, shared a kinship with the Barbizon School and provided a powerful American precedent for Teed's own landscape endeavors.
Thematic Focus: Orientalism and Romantic Landscapes
Teed's oeuvre is characterized by two primary thematic concerns: Orientalist scenes and Romantic landscapes, often infused with Impressionistic light and color. His fascination with "Oriental" subjects – typically scenes depicting North Africa, the Middle East, or other locales perceived as exotic by Western audiences – placed him within a broader 19th-century artistic and cultural phenomenon known as Orientalism.
Artists like Jean-Léon Gérôme, Eugène Delacroix in France, and John Frederick Lewis in Britain had popularized these themes, often depicting bustling marketplaces, serene mosque interiors, desert caravans, and intimate harem scenes. While some artists traveled extensively in these regions, others relied on photographs, artifacts, and imagination. Teed's Orientalist works, such as View of a Mosque, capture this allure of the exotic, often characterized by rich colors, dramatic lighting, and a sense of romanticized otherness. These paintings catered to a public fascination with distant lands and cultures, offering an escape from the industrialized West. American artists like Frederick Arthur Bridgman also found considerable success with similar themes.
Alongside his Orientalist works, Teed was a dedicated landscape painter. His landscapes, such as The Lakeside and The Far Horizon, often convey a deep reverence for nature, a hallmark of Romanticism. He sought to capture not just the visual appearance of a scene but its emotional resonance and spiritual essence. His approach often involved soft, atmospheric effects, a sensitivity to the nuances of light and shadow, and a poetic interpretation of the natural world. This aligns with the Romantic tradition that saw nature as a source of sublime beauty and spiritual insight, a tradition with deep roots in American art through figures like Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand of the Hudson River School.
Teed's technique often incorporated elements of Impressionism. While not an Impressionist in the strict sense of adhering to the movement's scientific theories of light and color like Claude Monet or Camille Pissarro, Teed adopted a brighter palette, broken brushwork, and an interest in capturing fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. This fusion of Romantic sentiment with Impressionistic technique gave his work a distinctive quality, allowing him to convey both the grandeur and the subtle moods of nature.
Notable Works and Stylistic Characteristics
Several of Douglas Arthur Teed's paintings exemplify his artistic concerns and stylistic approaches.
View of a Mosque: This work is a prime example of Teed's engagement with Orientalist themes. Such paintings typically feature architectural details characteristic of Islamic cultures, figures in traditional attire, and an atmosphere of serene contemplation or vibrant activity. Teed would have focused on capturing the play of light on textured surfaces and the rich colors associated with these locales.
The Lakeside and The Far Horizon: These titles suggest quintessential Romantic landscapes. The Lakeside likely evokes a tranquil, reflective scene, perhaps with soft, diffused light and a focus on the harmonious relationship between water, land, and sky. The Far Horizon implies a sense of vastness, aspiration, or the unknown, themes common in Romantic art that explore humanity's place within the grandeur of nature. These works would showcase his ability to create mood and atmosphere, possibly influenced by the Tonalist sensibilities of artists like James McNeill Whistler or Dwight Tryon, who, like Inness, prioritized harmonious color and evocative mood.
Train in the Mohawk Valley and Lackawanna Valley: These paintings point to Teed's interest in the American landscape, including scenes that incorporate elements of human industry. The depiction of a train, a powerful symbol of progress and change in the 19th century, within a natural valley setting, offers a complex interplay between nature and civilization. George Inness himself famously painted The Lackawanna Valley (though earlier, in 1855), and Teed's choice of similar subject matter suggests an engagement with this theme of industrial presence in the American pastoral. Teed's versions would likely blend his Romantic appreciation for the landscape with a more contemporary awareness of modern life.
Sea Coast Village, Amalfi, Italy: This painting reflects his European travels and his interest in picturesque locations. Amalfi, with its dramatic coastline and historic architecture, was a popular subject for artists. Teed's rendition would likely combine a Romantic sensibility with observations of Mediterranean light and color, perhaps employing Impressionistic brushwork to capture the shimmering sea and sun-drenched buildings.
Morning in Normandy: Another work inspired by his European experiences, this piece would focus on the specific atmospheric conditions of a morning in the French countryside. Normandy was a region favored by many artists, including the Impressionists, for its varied landscapes and soft light. Teed's interpretation would likely emphasize the poetic quality of the early morning light and the rustic charm of the region.
Across these works, Teed's style is marked by a desire to convey emotion and a sense of the spiritual or poetic. His brushwork could range from smooth, blended passages in more Tonalist-inspired works to more broken, vibrant strokes where he embraced Impressionistic effects. His color palettes were often rich and evocative, tailored to the mood and subject of each piece.
Career Highlights, Recognition, and Personal Life
Douglas Arthur Teed achieved a notable degree of recognition during his lifetime. He was active in various art circles, particularly in Detroit, Michigan, and Binghamton, New York. His participation in independent exhibitions in Detroit suggests an artist keen to showcase his work and engage with the contemporary art scene. The fact that the Koreshan Unity, despite his somewhat detached relationship with it, collected and displayed his works indicates a familial and perhaps community-level appreciation for his talent.
A significant accolade was the Floy G. Hitchcock Prize, awarded to him by the Detroit Institute of Arts, a testament to the quality of his work and his standing among his peers in that city. His paintings also found their way into various institutional collections, further solidifying his reputation.
Commercially, Teed's works were successful. It is recorded that his paintings commanded high prices at auction, with some fetching up to 5,000 – a very substantial sum for the period, indicating a strong market demand and appreciation from collectors. This financial success underscores his appeal to the tastes of his time. His works occasionally appeared in auctions alongside those of other notable American artists, such as the marine and landscape painter James Hamilton, known for his dramatic, Turneresque style, and Maud Humphrey, a popular illustrator and watercolorist (and mother of actor Humphrey Bogart), highlighting Teed's presence in the broader art market.
Beyond his artistic pursuits, Teed demonstrated an interest in nature conservation. His involvement in purchasing land to protect Paxtang village in Pennsylvania shows a practical commitment to preserving natural and perhaps historical environments, an action that aligns with the Romantic reverence for nature often expressed in his paintings.
Teed's personal life had its share of interesting aspects. In his later years, he relocated to Detroit. He remarried, and his second wife, Felice, was 22 years his junior. This age difference, while not unheard of, might be seen by some as reflecting a Romantic inclination towards unconventional choices or a life lived with a certain artistic temperament, where, as some scholars noted in the context of American Romanticism, "imagination triumphed over reason."
Tragically, Teed's life was cut short. In 1929, he suffered a mild heart attack, and his doctors advised him to stay away from his studio for six weeks, a difficult prescription for a dedicated artist. Later that year, on May 23rd, while at home with his wife Felice, he succumbed to a second, fatal heart attack.
Critical Reception and Historical Significance
Art historians and critics evaluating Douglas Arthur Teed's work generally acknowledge his skill in creating atmospheric and emotionally resonant paintings. He is recognized as a Romantic painter who successfully integrated Orientalist themes and Impressionistic techniques into a distinctive personal style. His European studies, particularly his admiration for Corot and the Barbizon School, are seen as foundational to his approach, lending his work a soft, tonal quality and a focus on the poetic aspects of nature.
Scholars have praised Teed for the originality and diversity within his body of work. His landscapes are often described as possessing a Romanticism reminiscent of Corot but with a unique Teedian touch. His ability to infuse his scenes, whether real or imagined, with a sense of romantic imagination, often inspired by his understanding or interpretation of Eastern art and culture, is a key aspect of his appeal. While Teed himself reportedly admitted he might not have been the most technically flawless painter, his sincerity of intent and his commitment to expressing the "soul" or spiritual essence of nature were considered by many to compensate for any perceived technical shortcomings.
However, his work has also faced some criticism. The very diversity that some admired led others to suggest that his exploration of multiple styles sometimes resulted in a lack of profound depth in any single one. His Romanticism could, at times, be perceived as overly sentimental or idealized by critics favoring more modern, less overtly emotional approaches. Furthermore, his engagement with Orientalism, while popular, is viewed through a contemporary lens that is more critical of the potential for exoticism and cultural appropriation inherent in some 19th-century Western depictions of non-Western cultures. His reliance on Oriental themes, while enriching his palette and subject matter, might also be seen as occasionally leaning too heavily on external, somewhat stereotypical inspirations.
Despite these critiques, Douglas Arthur Teed remains an important figure for understanding the multifaceted nature of American art at the turn of the 20th century. He was not a radical innovator in the vein of the European avant-garde, nor did he align himself strictly with any single dominant school. Instead, he synthesized various influences – the Romanticism of Inness and Corot, the exotic allure of Orientalism, and the vibrant light of Impressionism – into a body of work that was both personal and appealing to the tastes of his era.
Legacy and Conclusion
Douglas Arthur Teed's legacy lies in his contribution to the Romantic tradition in American art, particularly his ability to evoke mood, atmosphere, and a sense of the poetic. His Orientalist paintings, while products of their time, demonstrate his imaginative reach and his skill in rendering scenes of distant lands with an alluring vibrancy. His landscapes capture a deep appreciation for the natural world, filtered through a sensibility that valued emotional response and spiritual connection.
He navigated a period when American art was asserting its own identity while still looking to Europe for training and inspiration. Artists like Teed, Winslow Homer (known for his powerful marine scenes and American genre subjects), Thomas Eakins (a staunch realist), Mary Cassatt (an American Impressionist who primarily worked in France), and John Singer Sargent (a cosmopolitan portraitist) all contributed to the rich and varied tapestry of American art during this era. Teed's particular blend of influences and themes offers a unique perspective within this broader context.
His works continue to be appreciated by collectors and are held in various public and private collections. They serve as a reminder of a period when Romanticism still held sway, even as modernism was beginning to challenge established artistic conventions. Douglas Arthur Teed, with his sincere intent and his evocative depictions of both familiar landscapes and exotic dreams, carved out a distinctive place for himself, leaving behind a body of work that continues to charm and intrigue. He remains a testament to the enduring power of Romantic vision in American art.
