Born in Tiverton, RI, Stetson began
painting about 1872 and he had determined to be a artist by 1876.
Without formal training and without the financial means to even
hold a studio continuously between 1876 and 1878, he struggled
to find his way. His talent as a “Colorist” was recognized
by Bannister, Burleigh and especially Whitaker, and they gave
him encouragment in these early years of the Providence art community.
From 1878 until about 1885, Stetson truly lived the life of a
starving artist. His early work shows the lack of drawing skill
which was recognized by him as well as his critics. He was, however,
considered to have in him, the traits of a great colorist and
his paintings were accepted into exhibitions at the Pennsylvania
Academy and Boston Art Club, attracting much praise from prominent
artists and critics of the time. His early work in landscape painting
is moody and shows the influence of the Barbizon style, which
is surely attibuted to his exposure to Whitaker’s work as
well as by the French Barbizon paintings collected by the Providence
art dealer, Seth Vose.
He was a founding member of the Providence Art Club and was one
of the first occupants of the Fleur de Lis studios. He moved to
Pasadena, CA in 1889 and stayed a little more than a year before
returning to Providence, where he remained until the end of 1894.
The years 1895 to 1900 were again spent in Pasadena, except for
a trip to Europe in 1897. The year 1900 saw Stetson open a studio
in Boston and he spent the remainder of his life between Boston,
Italy and Pasadena. California collectors claim Stetson as one
of their own, but Rhode Island collectors believe they have the
stronger claim.
Through his career he exhibited at the PAC, the Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts, the NY Etching Club, numerous art galleries in New
York, Boston, and California, and in 1902 he had an exhibition
which traveled to museums in St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati
and Worcester. After his death a number of his paintings were
exhibited at the PAC and a Memorial Exhibition was held at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Other memorial exhibitions were
held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1912, the Detroit Museum
of Art, 1913, and the Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1914
