Lemuel Maynard Wiles (1826-1905)
- Lemuel Maynard Wiles (1826-1905)
- Scene in Mohawk Valley, Utica, NY, c. 1860
- Oil on panel
- 15 x 12 5/8 inches
- Original label, verso
Lemuel Maynard Wiles, the son of farmers and a native of West Perry, New York, displayed an artistic talent at an early age—mainly in the form of sketches. Encouraged by his mother, Wiles decided to pursue a career in teaching at the New York State Normal School in Albany, where he graduated in 1847. Wiles taught briefly in the district schools of Smoky Hollow and Strykersville, as well as the Lyons Union School and the Albany Academy, before opening the Select School for Boys in Buffalo in 1851. Wiles would maintain this teaching position until 1857. It was in 1849, during his early teaching years, that Wiles commenced his formal artistic education under the instruction of the Hudson River School painters William M. Hart (1823-1894) and Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900).
