Photos of the October 29, 2011 Exhibition Opening

This exhibition features three remarkable historical American paintings that have not been displayed publicly for more than twenty years. All three were created in the mid-1850s by the American portraitist and landscape painter Thomas Hicks (1823-90), an artist who summered in central New York State on the banks of the West Canada Creek. The largest of the paintings, The Moore Family at Trenton Falls (private collection) is an impressive group portrait. It depicts Michael and Maria Moore and their nine children in a woodland setting with a view of Trenton High Falls in the background. The popularity of Trenton Falls as a picturesque resort was due in no small measure to the Moore family, who owned the fashionable Trenton Falls Hotel that was located on property adjacent to Trenton Falls.

Hick's two other paintings, both recently acquired by the Museum in commemoration of its 75th anniversary, are striking views of two different Trenton Falls scenes. This natural wonder, located about 14 miles north of Utica, consisted of a series of six cataracts and cascades. Each differed form the others in from, scale and scenic setting along two miles of the West Canada Creek as it descended through a gorge on its way from the Adirondacks to the Mohawk River.