Purple Mountian (9974.11.2)

Framed oil painting of an impressionistic landscape, a grand Mountain, colored with shades of purple & peach, covered with Pine Trees, in the foreground, with other mountains in the background.

Hedley Waycott was born in England in 1865. He learned to draw and carve wood as an apprentice to a silversmith and engraver, then came to Illinois in 1882 to join his father and two sisters who had already come here to live. His first employment was at the firm of Newkirk and Pay, and after the death of Mr.Pay, Hedley became a partner in the firm. After three years he started his own business, the Peoria Art Shop, which was located on Main Street near the former Palace Theater.

The Waycott store was a meeting place for artists and sponsored many art exhibits. Hedley's marriage to Louise, a baker's daughter was most fortunate,for she encouraged him to learn to paint with oils. He then started a group called The Men's Saturday Afternoon Sketch Club which included the pioneer painter Arthur Loomis, Carl Pehl, Grant Wright, Robert Weller and Charles Lambert.

Although the catalogue of 57 Waycott paintings shown in an exhibit at the Peoria Art Institute in 1927 lists still life and portrait subjects as well as landscape, Waycott loved to paint out of doors. He and his devoted wife walked over all the lovely fields and wooded areas near Peoria and eventually trav-elled to thirty-seven states for his landscape paintings. He used either watercolor or oils with equal ease.

Waycott's paintings show the influence of European Impressionism and Pointillism as well as the romantic quality of the American Hudson River School. He belongs to the group called "American Impressionists ".

In 1931 a large Waycott painting (40"x50") was chosen for an exhibit in New York City and the following year his work called "Artistry in Snow" (48"x60") was hung at the 109th Annual Academy of Design exhibition in that city. During his lifetime Waycott sold over 800 paintings, but the depression forced him out of his Art shop and his studio apartment then on Hamilton Boulevard. He opened a small framing shop in his final home at 218 Wisconsin Avenue to survive. His hand- carved frames with Art-Deco-like designs in the corners are often seen on paintings by other artists in Peoria collections.

This shy British-born artist was so beloved by Peorians that the whole city celebrated his 50th year here. His name was a symbol of art in the community and he taught many students.

After Waycott's death in 1937,his wife gave paintings to Manual and Peoria High School and after her death some were given to the Buehler Home on Sheridan Road. They had only one child, a daughter who died while still in grammar school and is not mentioned in newspaper accounts yet discovered.

In 1964 a retrospective exhibition of 34 paintings by Hedley Waycott was held in Glen Oak Pavilion by the Peoria Art Center. -- A.N.Cooley, Peoria Historical Society, June, 1981