Background
John was born on June 8, 1828 at Loudon, N. H. He was the son of Daniel Tilton.
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John Rollin Tilton
Edit ProfileEducation
He began his career at a time when there was little opportunity for study and little encouragement for the painter; what knowledge and skill he gained were of his own getting. He recieved a common-school education.
Career
He went to Rome in 1852, and lived in Italy for over thirty-five years, traveling again and again to its famous places, visiting the Alps, the Rhine, Spain, Greece and its islands, Egypt, and Switzerland, specializing in pictures of places famous for their historical associations.
His studio in the Barberini Palace in Rome was for years a favorite resort for American and English tourists, who were eager to buy pictures of the places they had visited and enjoyed.
Many of his landscapes found their way into the collections of the British nobility and gentry. He exhibited "The Palace of Thebes" at the Royal Academy, London, 1873, and his "Lagoons of Venice" and "Komombo" at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. He also sent his work to the National Academy, New York, and to the Boston Athenaeum.
His "Venetian Fishing Boats" and "Rome from Mount Aventine" belong to the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D. C. In addition to many medals and honors, he received much extravagant praise on both sides of the Atlantic. The London Daily News solemnly announced that he was "the first American painter since Benjamin West to receive special commendation from the President of the Royal Academy". H. T. Tuckerman found "a ghostly charm" in one of his pictures of the Alps, and went into raptures over some other indifferent performances which he characterized as "most faithfully and artistically rendered, " "very attractive, " "charming, " "greatly admired in Rome".
Tilton was a prominent example of the American artists who have won fame for themselves by persevering industry. He studied life and nature in many countries, and his paintings of Naples and Venice, of Greece and Egypt were as well known in England and all over Europe as they were in his own country.
Tilton died in Rome.
In the winter of 1889, about a year after his death, a sale exhibition of his oil paintings and watercolors was held at the gallery of Leonard & Company, Boston, the collection being composed of two hundred and ninety-six works belonging to his estate; all but thirteen of these were watercolors.
Achievements
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
De Gubernatis noted that "those who found Neapolitan vedute painters, warm and scintillating, would find Tilton cold and calm. "
Connections
His wife, Caroline Tilton, published some translations from the Italian. There were two children.
