Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait Biography

Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait (1819-1905) was a British-American artist who is known mostly for his paintings of wildlife. During most of his career, he was associated with the New York City art scene.

Tait was born in Livesey Hall near Liverpool, England. At eight years old, (due to his father's bankruptcy), he was sent to live with relatives in Lancaster. It is during that time that he became attached to animals. Later on, in Manchester, England, Agnew & Zanetti Repository of Art acquired Arthur Tait, who began self-learning to paint as a twelve-year-old boy. His work consisted mostly of reproduced lithography that was exposed for Agnew's exhibitions. In 1838, he left the Agnew lithography reproduction business to marry.

During the period 1845-1848, he produced a number of lithographs of railway subjects, with a particular focus on landscapes showing the Lancashire and Yorkshire lines.

During the late 1840s, he became aware of the Americas while attending a George Catlin exhibition in Paris. He immigrated to the United States in 1850, where he established a small painting camp in the Adirondacks to paint during the summer. Starting in 1852, Currier & Ives reproduced lithographs of his works to publicise him. What also promoted his talent was exhibitions held at the National Academy of Design, New York, during the late 19th century, showing more than 200 paintings of his. In 1858, he was elected to full membership of the Academy.

He was identified with the art life of New York until his death at Yonkers, New York in 1905. He painted barnyard fowl and wild birds as well as sheep and deer, with great dexterity, and reproductions of his minute panels of chickens had an enormous vogue.

In 2006, Tait's painting Good Hunting Ground: The Home of the Deer was auctioned for $167,300.

He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.