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Edward Lamson Henry (January 12, 1841May 9, 1919), commonly known as E.L. Henry, was an American
Edward Lamson Henry, 1841-1919
1999. In ''Selections from the American Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts and the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum'', , pp. 100-102. He died at his home in
As a painter of colonial and early American themes and incidents of rural life, he displays a quaint humor. He was best known for themes involving transportation, especially railroads, but also stage coach and canal boat journeys, among other means, all rendered in minute detail.
Henry was a member of the
", May 2005, Yale University Art Gallery. Retrieved on May 14, 2008. Henry's paintings were extremely popular throughout his life. Art professor William T. Oedel wrote of his legacy, "Perhaps no artist played so consistently and so durably to the American cult of nostalgia in the last quarter of the 19th century as Edward Lamson Henry."
File:Henry-Kept In.jpg, '' Kept In'', 1888. Race was a theme in many of Henry's paintings, inspired by his time in the Civil War.
File:Henry-Presentation of Colors.JPG, ''Presentation of Colors, 1864'' depicts the outfitting of two African-American Civil War regiments at the
American paintings & historical prints from the Middendorf collection
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Henry (no. 44)
Gallery
* Also see Valerie Ann Leeds, "Railroad Ties: Edward Lamson Henry, The 9:45 a.m. Accommodation in Context and the Commission by John Taylor Johnston," Nineteenth Century 41(Fall 2021): 10-25. {{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Edward Lamson 1841 births 1919 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters American genre painters Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni National Academy of Design members Artists from Charleston, South Carolina Painters from South Carolina Painters from New York City 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
, born in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
.
Early life
Though born in Charleston, by age seven his parents had died and Henry moved to live with cousins in New York City. He began studying painting, there and at thePennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryl ...
in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. In 1860 he went to Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, where he studied with Charles Gleyre
Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre (2 May 1806 – 5 May 1874), was a Swiss artist who was a resident in France from an early age. He took over the studio of Paul Delaroche in 1843 and taught a number of younger artists who became prominent, including He ...
and Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...
, at roughly the same time as Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...
, Frédéric Bazille
Jean Frédéric Bazille (December 6, 1841 – November 28, 1870) was a French Impressionist painter. Many of Bazille's major works are examples of figure painting in which he placed the subject figure within a landscape painted ''en plein air''.
...
, and Alfred Sisley
Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...
.
In 1862, he returned to the United States, where he served as a clerk on a Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
transport ship in the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. After the war he resumed his painting, with many works inspired by his experiences in the war. He moved into the prestigious Tenth Street Studio Building
The Tenth Street Studio Building, constructed in New York City in 1857, was the first modern facility designed solely to serve the needs of artists. It became the center of the New York art world for the remainder of the 19th century.
Situated at ...
in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
, where Winslow Homer
Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in ...
also had a studio. In 1869, Henry was elected to the National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...
, New York
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* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
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Film and television
* '' ...
.Oedel, William T.Edward Lamson Henry, 1841-1919
1999. In ''Selections from the American Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts and the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum'', , pp. 100-102. He died at his home in
Ellenville, New York
Ellenville is a village within the town of Wawarsing, Ulster County, New York, United States. Its population was 4,135 at the 2010 census.
Geography
The village of Ellenville is about 90 miles northwest of New York City and 90 miles southwest ...
on May 9, 1919.
Painting
As a painter of colonial and early American themes and incidents of rural life, he displays a quaint humor. He was best known for themes involving transportation, especially railroads, but also stage coach and canal boat journeys, among other means, all rendered in minute detail.
Henry was a member of the New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. ...
. Because of his great attention to detail, his paintings were treated by contemporaries as authentic historical reconstructions. In 1884, Henry and his wife Frances Livingston Wells moved to the town of Cragsmoor in the Shawangunk Mountains Shawangunk ( ) may refer to:
In New York
*Shawangunk, New York, a town in Ulster County
*Shawangunk Correctional Facility, in Ulster County
*Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge, in Ulster County
*Shawangunk Kill, a tributary of the Wallk ...
of Upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
where they helped to found an artists' colony. Henry acquired a large collection of antiques, old photos, and assorted Americana
Americana may refer to:
*Americana (music), a genre or style of American music
*Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States
Film, radio and television
* ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...
, from which he researched his paintings. His wife Frances said that "Nothing annoyed him more than to see a wheel, a bit of architecture etc. carelessly drawn or out of keeping with the time it was supposed to portray".
Henry's "historical fictions" often portrayed an idyllic and agrarian America, one relatively unperturbed by Civil War or by the growing phenomena of industrialization, urbanization and immigration that were taking place during the period in which he painted.Work by Edward Lamson Henry, One of Most Popular Artists of Late Nineteenth-Century America", May 2005, Yale University Art Gallery. Retrieved on May 14, 2008. Henry's paintings were extremely popular throughout his life. Art professor William T. Oedel wrote of his legacy, "Perhaps no artist played so consistently and so durably to the American cult of nostalgia in the last quarter of the 19th century as Edward Lamson Henry."
Gallery
Union League Club of New York
The Union League Club is a private social club in New York City that was founded in 1863 in affiliation with the Union League. Its fourth and current clubhouse is located at 38 East 37th Street on the corner of Park Avenue, in the Murray Hill ...
.
File:Henry-revolutionary-war.jpg, ''Washington at the Battle of Trenton'', an engraving after a painting by Henry
File:Henry-motherhood.jpg, ''Motherhood''. Much of Henry's work romanticized traditional American values.
File:The 9-45 Accommodation MET DT1285.jpg, '' The 9:45 Accommodation''
References
External links
American paintings & historical prints from the Middendorf collection
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Henry (no. 44)
Gallery
* Also see Valerie Ann Leeds, "Railroad Ties: Edward Lamson Henry, The 9:45 a.m. Accommodation in Context and the Commission by John Taylor Johnston," Nineteenth Century 41(Fall 2021): 10-25. {{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Edward Lamson 1841 births 1919 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters American genre painters Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni National Academy of Design members Artists from Charleston, South Carolina Painters from South Carolina Painters from New York City 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists