(b Oswego, NY, 11 Dec 1853; d New York, 10 June 1921). American painter. A self-taught artist, he depicted the coastal flatlands of New York and New Jersey and similar countryside in New England. His early work until c. 1885 was based on direct observation of nature and was often small-scale, for example Summer Afternoon (1875; Salt Lake City, U. UT, Mus. F.A.). In middle-period works, such as New England Landscapes (n.d.; Springville, UT, Mus. A.), Murphy was influenced by A. H. Wyant, George Inness, Homer Dodge Martin and the Barbizon school painters Corot, Rousseau and Daubigny. He spent summers at Arkville in the Catskill Mountains from 1887, and Wyant’s presence there between 1889 and 1892 had a pronounced influence on Murphy’s developing Tonalist style. His work of this time consists of spare expressions of barren wind-blown land painted with a limited palette. Murphy typically prepared his canvases early to give time for the underpaint to dry and then applied brown and gold, which he flattened with a palette-knife as a basis for later stages of rubbing (with pumice), lacquering and glazing. After 1900 Murphy painted some of his finest oils, including Sprout Lake (1915; Washington, DC, N. Mus. Amer. A.), in which he achieved an almost pure tonal unity.

• Murphy, J(ohn) Francis
  • Tonalism