New England Landscape, oil on canvas, 17" x 28", 23" x 34" w/ 22k gold leaf hand-carved frame, s.l.r. "J. Morviller 1864"
Joseph Morviller was born in Paris, France in 1825 and trained as a painter and lithographer. He lived for a time in London before emigrating to America in 1852, where he lived in Boston, Massachusetts. He specialized in picturesque landscapes of Americans pursuing common activities and enjoying their favorite pastimes. Many of his paintings were reprinted as chromolithographs by art publisher Louis Prang.
During his lifetime, Morviller exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and the National Academy. His work can be seen today in the collections of the Malden (MA) Public Library; the Toledo (OH) Museum of Art; the Topeka (KS) Public Library; the New Bedford (MA) Free Library; the Stowe-Day Foundation, (CT); and Amherst College. His work was included in John Driscoll's book, All That Is Glorious Around Us: Paintings From The Hudson River School, published in 1997 by Cornell University Press.
Morviller died in New York City in 1868.