Biography courtesy of Who Was Who in American Art, the reference book on the cultural life in the United States.

Birth place:  Troy, NY

Death place: Bethlehem, PA

Addresses: NYC, 1846; Baskingridge, NJ, 1848; NYC, 1851-55; Philadelphia,1855-57; Bethlehem, PA, 1858 and after

Profession: Itinerant landscape and portrait painter

Exhibited: NAD, 1846-74; PAFA, 1854-81; Brooklyn AA, 1862, 1864, 1866, 1874; Boston Athenaeum, 1854-61; Washington AA, 1857-59; American Art-Union, 1845-52

Member: A.N.A. (from 1851)

Work: Karolik Collection, BMFA; Moravian Archives, Bethlehem

Comments: Boutelle left Troy for NYC by 1846 and over the next thirteen years worked and traveled in the areas of NYC and Philadelphia, also painting in the Hudson River Valley and New England and exhibiting his landscapes to much success. In honor of Thomas Cole, he produced a full-sized, meticulous copy of Cole's Voyage of Life." At the invitation of wealthy industrialist and art collector Samuel Wetherill, he moved to Bethlehem (Pa.) in 1859, joining a small group of area artists specializing in landscapes. His son, Edward C. Boutelle was also an artist. Note: Boutelle was most likely named after DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828), the Governor of New York and the man considered responsible for the successful completion of the Erie Canal. There were apparently many namesakes. Groce & Wallace reported that in the NYC Census of 1860 (8 Census, 1860, N.Y., LVI, 247) there was a listing for DeWitt Clinton, artist, age 32 ó it is possible this was DeWitt Clinton Boutelle; Groce & Wallace also note that in the Philadelphia CD 1857 Boutelle was listed as Bartelle.

Sources: G&W; CAB (rev. ed.); Cowdrey, NAD; Rutledge, PA; Swan, BA; Washington Art Assoc. Cat., 1857, 1859; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Antiques (May 1947), 307 (repro. of landscape). More recently, see Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 1: 179, 267; Campbell, New Hampshire Scenery, 15."