Levi Wells Prentice

Who was Levi Wells Prentice?

Levi Wells Prentice was an American still life and landscape painter.

Prentice was associated with the Hudson River School, a group of artists known throughout art circles. According to the book Nature Staged by Barbara L. Jones, Prentice followed a self-prescribed educational path, begun by the Hudson River School and reinforced by John Ruskin's truth-to-nature principles laid out in his book Modern Painters. Although he can be allied to both schools of thought, Prentice can not be considered a member of either. This book has a photo of the artist in his early Brooklyn studio surrounded by his paintings and a complete essay on his life and work.

Prentice grew up on a farm in Lewis County, New York. By 1872, Prentice had traveled through the Adirondack Mountains, painting the views as well as the surrounding region. He opened his first studio as a landscape painter in Syracuse, New York in 1875.

Self-taught artist Levi Wells Prentice is best known for his realistic still life compositions of fruit arranged within a landscape, or abundantly spilling from bushel baskets.