Henry Bainbridge McCarter (1864-1942) was an American illustrator and painter known for his influence on the modernistic art movements. McCarter worked as an illustrator in New York before becoming an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for forty years. He won numerous medals for illustration, watercolor and oil painting including the 1938 Temple Gold Medal.

Early life and education

McCarter was born 5 July 1864 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. In 1879, he began attending the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine arts where one of his instructors was Thomas Eakins. However, he described the five years of his studies there as "lost years." In 1887, he went to Paris where he studied with Puvis de Chavannes,

Léon Bonnat Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (20 June 1833 – 8 September 1922) was a French painter, Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur and professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Early life Bonnat was born in Bayonne, but from 1846 to 1853 he lived in Ma ...

and

Thomas Alexander Harrison Thomas Alexander Harrison (January 17, 1853 in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaOctober 13, 1930 in Paris, France), was an American marine painter who spent most of his career in France. Career He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Ph ...

of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.

Career

While in Paris, McCarter became an apprentice in lithography to

Toulouse Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in th ...

. He then returned to the USA and moved to New York to work as a graphic illustrator. McCarter drew illustrations for Scribners,

Harpers Harpers may refer to: * Harpers, popular misnomer for ''Harper's Magazine'', American monthly magazine * ''Harper's Bazaar'', monthly American fashion magazine * ''Harpers Wine & Spirit'', formerly ''Harpers Magazine'' (since 1878), British trade ...

, McClure's and

Collier's ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...

magazines, among others. He also taught at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

. In 1902 he accepted a position as a watercolor teacher and the first instructor of illustration at his former school, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He was an instructor there for the next forty years. Although he began as an illustrator, by the 1920s McCarter concentrated on watercolor and oil painting of still lifes and landscapes. According to the art curator W. Douglass Paschal, McCarter "sought a path merging the compositional structures, brushwork and strong coloration of the Post-Impressionists and Fauves he admired." McCarter became a strong advocate for modernism among his students at PAFA. Students who McCarter influenced included

Franklin C. Watkins Franklin Chennault Watkins (December 30, 1894 – December 4, 1972) was an American painter. Early life and education Born in New York City, Watkins was the son of Benjamin Franklin Watkins of Reidsville, North Carolina, and Shirley Chennault W ...

, Charles Demuth,

Norman Carton Norman Carton (January 7, 1908 – February 14, 1980) was an American artist and educator known for abstract expressionist art. He was born in the Ukraine region of Imperial Russia and moved to the United States in 1922 where he spent most of h ...

, and

Arthur B. Carles Arthur Beecher Carles (March 9, 1882 – 1952) was an American Modernist painter. Biography Carles was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1900 and 1907. He studied with Thomas Pol ...

Awards

Prizes awarded to McCarter included: bronze medal at the Buffalo Exposition (1901), silver medal at the

Louisiana Purchase Exposition The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an World's fair, international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds tota ...

(1904), gold medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915), the Beck Prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), the Joseph Pennell Memorial Prize for watercolor, PAFA (1940), the gold medal from

Art Club of Philadelphia The Art Club of Philadelphia, often called the Philadelphia Art Club, was a club in Philadelphia, founded on February 7, 1887, to advance the arts.

(1936), Temple Gold Medal at the 134th Annual Exhibition of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1938). He won the Fellowship Gold Medal for his “dreamlike and ethereal” oil painting titled ''Old Trappe Church'' in 1941.

Personal life

McCarter neither married nor had children. He died of a heart attack on 20 November 1942 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, aged 76. McCarter was buried at the Church of Messiah Cemetery in

Gwynedd, Pennsylvania Gwynedd is an unincorporated community in Lower Gwynedd Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. Gwynedd is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 202 and Sumneytown Pike. Notable person *Warder Cresson Warder Cresson (J ...

Selected works

File:On the City's Edge.jpg, ''On the City's Edge'', 1901, pen and ink drawing File:Great Nurse of Freedom.jpg, Illustration for the poem "The Sea is His" by Edward Sandford Martin in 1898 Scribner's Magazine. File:Henry McCarter--Paul Verlaine--Gertrude Hall--1906.tif, From ''Poems of Paul Verlaine'', trans. by Gertrude Hall, 1895 File:Three Women in a Garden.jpg, ''Three Women in a Garden'', 1922, oil on canvas,

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

References