Artists

John Hesselius (1728–1778) was a portraitist who worked mostly in Virginia and Maryland. He was the son of the Swedish-born portraitist Gustavus Hesselius. Background John Hesselius was most likely born in Philadelphia, where his father owned a house to satisfy clients. Claims that he was born in Prince Georges County, Maryland are unfounded,...

John Hill was born in London in 1770, and was apprenticed as a youth to an engraver in that city. He became interested in the process of aquatinting, a technique wherein a metal plate is etched several times in order to create tonal gradations, resulting in a print that is easier to hand-color due to the variety of subtle tones produced. Hill began...

Milton W. Hopkins, the son of Hezekiah and Eunice Hubbell Hopkins, was born on 1 August 1789 in Harwinton, Connecticut. In 1800 the family moved to Clinton, New York. In 1807 he returned to Connecticut, soon marrying Abigail Pollard of Guilford, with whom he had a child. After Abigail's death in 1817, he wed Almira Adkins and moved to Evans Mill,...

Robert Havell, Jr. (Nov. 25, 1793 - Nov. 11, 1878) was the principal engraver of Audubon's Birds of America, perhaps the most significant natural history publication of all time. His aquatint engraving of all but the first ten plates of John James Audubon's Birds of America is now recognized as a significant artistic achievement in its own right...

Jurgan Frederick Huge was born in Hamburg in 1809. Of the approximately fifty known examples of his work, most are renderings of sailing and steam vessels, which recall the artist's youth as a seaman. Huge (at that time spelling his given names Jurgen Friedrich) came to America as a young man. By 1830 he was established as the owner of a store in...

George Peter Alexander Healy (July 15, 1813 - June 24, 1894) was an American painter born in Boston, Massachusetts. Going to Europe in 1835 Healy studied under Baron Gros in Paris and in Rome. He received a third-class medal in Paris in 1840, and one of the second class in 1855, when he exhibited his "Franklin urging the claims of the American...

Daniel Huntington (October 4, 1816 – April 19, 1906), American artist, was born in New York City, New York, the son of Benjamin Huntington, Jr. and Faith Trumbull Huntington; his paternal grandfather was Benjamin Huntington, delegate at the Second Continental Congress and First U.S. Representative from Connecticut. From 1833 to 1835 he studied at...

Charles Spencer Humphreys was born on 18 February 1818 in Moorestown, New Jersey. He was one of seven children of Joshua Humphreys and Abigail Cox. By the age of nineteen Humphreys was living in Camden, New Jersey, where on 10 May 1837 he placed the following advertisement in the Camden Mail and General Advertiser: "House, Sign and Ornamental...

Martin Johnson Heade (August 11, 1819 – September 4, 1904) was a prolific American painter known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, portraits of tropical birds, and still lifes. His painting style and subject matter, while derived from the romanticism of the time, is regarded by art historians as a significant departure from that of his...

Charles C. Hofmann was born in Germany around 1820, and immigrated to America in 1860, arriving in the port of New York. In subsequent years he lived in several communities along Pennsylvania's Schuylkill River, sometimes as a resident/patient of the public poorhouses. He is the best-known of the three so-called "Pennsylvania Almshouse Painters," the...

The attribution to Salome Hensel and date (1823) of the National Gallery's To the Memory of the Benevolent Howard (1971.83.22), an unsigned theorem painting, are based on a label that was once afixed to the reverse. It reads: "This painting was done in 1823 by Salome Hensel eldest daughter of George and Catherine Noon Hensel. Salome was afterwards...

William Hart (March 31, 1823 – June 17, 1894), was a Scottish-born American landscape and cattle painter, and Hudson River School artist. His younger brother, James McDougal Hart, was also a Hudson River School artist, and the two painted similar subjects. He studied under Jules-Joseph Lefebvre. Biography Hart was born in Paisley, Scotland, and...

Realistic painter, George Hetzel is considered one of Pennsylvania's most significant landscape, portrait, and still-life painters of the nineteenth century. He was born in Hangviller, a small village in the province of Alsace, France, in 1826. Hetzels father decided that America offered unparalleled opportunities for a better life, however, and...

Thomas Hill (September 11, 1829 – June 30, 1908) was an American artist of the 19th century. He produced many fine paintings of the California landscape, in particular of the Yosemite Valley, as well as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Biography Thomas Hill was born in England on September 11, 1829. At the age of 15, he emigrated to the...

Joseph Henry Hidley was born 23 March 1830 in Greenbush, the part that later became North Greenbush, Rensselaer County, NY. He was baptised 11 July 1830 at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in the village of West Sand Lake, in the town of Sand Lake, Rensselaer County. Joseph's family had close ties to this church through several generations. His...

Sylvester Phelps Hodgdon studied with Benjamin Champney in Boston and later with Samuel Rouse in New York City.  In the early 1850s he worked as a lithographer for L. H. Bradford in Boston, during which time he executed views of the Flume and the Old Man of the Mountain. For thirty years he kept a studio in the Tremont Studio Building and he lived at...

Hermann Ottomar Herzog (November 15, 1832[1] – February 6, 1932) was a prominent nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European and American artist, primarily known for his landscapes. He was born in Bremen, Germany and entered the Düsseldorf Academy at age seventeen. Herzog achieved early commercial success, allowing him to travel widely and...

Ransome Gillett Holdridge was an early San Francisco school painter, specializing in Northern California landscapes. Biography Holdridge was born in New York City (or possibly London, England[1]) in 1836, and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1850s, where he became head draughtsman at Mare Island Naval Yard. In 1874, with the...

Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art. Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator.[1]...

Hennessy spent the summer months in Normandy where he had a residence close to the port of Honfleur. A school of painting, based in Saint Siméon’s Inn, was already well established there. Corot, Isabey and Huet were amongst the first painters of the group. Boudin, who was born there, invited Courbet, Jongkind and Monet to join them. It was at...