George Hitchcock

George Hitchcock (1850-1913) was one of the most celebrated American expatriate painters of the late nineteenth century, whose luminous depictions of Dutch flower fields, tulip harvests, and rural life in the Netherlands made him one of the most sought-after painters of his generation. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, he initially pursued a career in law, graduating from Brown University and studying at Harvard Law School before briefly practicing as an attorney. Recognizing that his true calling lay elsewhere, he abandoned the law for art and traveled to Europe to pursue his formal artistic training in London, Düsseldorf, Paris, and The Hague, studying at the Académie Julian and at the Royal Academy in The Hague.

Hitchcock eventually settled in the Netherlands, making his home in the small village of Egmond aan den Hoef, where he founded an artists' colony that would attract American and international painters over the following decades. His mature paintings are characterized by their brilliant color and their intimate connection to the Dutch landscape, particularly the vast tulip and hyacinth fields that bloomed across the countryside each spring. His most celebrated works depict Dutch women in traditional dress moving through fields of flowers, and his ambitious religious pictures, including his famous Annunciation, transposed the great biblical subjects into the modern Dutch countryside using local models and settings.

Hitchcock was one of the most decorated American painters of his generation. He received the Legion of Honor from France, the Order of Orange-Nassau from the Netherlands, and numerous prizes at international expositions. He was married to the English painter Cecil Jay, with whom he shared his life in the Netherlands. His paintings were widely collected by American and European collectors during his lifetime and are held today in major American and European museums.