Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait

Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait (born February 5, 1819 in Lively Hall, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Dead 28 April 1905 in Yonkers, New York) was a British artist who is known mostly for his paintings of wildlife. During most of his career, he was associated with the New York City art scene.

Tait was born in Lively Hall near Liverpool, England. At eight years old, because his father went bankrupt he was sent to live with relatives in Lancaster. It is during that time that he became attached to animals.

At the age of 12, in Manchester, he joined England, Agnew & Zanetti Repository of Art acquired Arthur Tait who began self-learning to paint, as a twelve-year-old boy. His work consisted mostly of reproduced lithography that were exposed for Agnew’s exhibitions.

In 1838, he left the Agnew lithography reproduction business to marry.

During the period 1845-1848 he produced a number of lithographs of railway subjects with a particular focus on landscapes showing Lancashire and Yorkshire lines.

During the late 1840s he became aware of the Americas while attending a George Catlin exhibition in Paris.

In 1850 he moved to the United States and settled down in New York City. He established a small painting camp in the Adirondacks to paint during summer where he painted landscapes, wildlife and hunters.

Starting in 1852, Currier & Ives reproduced lithographies of his works to publicize him. What also promoted his talent was exhibitions held at the National Academy of Design, New York during the late 19th century showing more than 200 paintings of his.

In 1858 he was elected to full membership of the Academy. His romantic and dramatic representations of scenes in the Adirondack Mountains were enormously popular during the Civil War years.

With great dexterity he painted poultry and wild birds as well as sheep and deer. The reproductions of his tiny chickens of chickens were enormously popular.

He was identified with the art life of New York until his death at Yonkers, New York in 1905. He painted barnyard fowl and wild birds as well as sheep and deer, with great dexterity, and reproductions of his minute panels of chickens had an enormous vogue.

He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.

With great dexterity he painted poultry and wild birds as well as sheep and deer. The reproductions of his tiny chickens of chickens were enormously popular.

In 2006, Tait’s painting Good Hunting Ground: The Home of the Deer was auctioned for $167,300.