December 28th marks the anniversary of the birth of Thomas Hovenden (1840-1895). Born in Ireland, Thomas Hovenden trained as a frame maker, woodcarver and gilder, as well as an artist. He came to America at the age of 23 and became known for his sympathetic yet dignified portrayals of common people, especially former slaves. Hovenden himself was a compassionate man. He is said to have died trying to save a girl from an oncoming train.[1]
Thomas Hovenden, Contentment, 1881
Columbus Museum of Art
Columbus, Georgia
G 1993.23
Hovenden’s self-portraits reveal his artwork as simultaneously conventional and original. Conventional in style, but unconventional in pose. In the costumed self-portrait of 1879, the second figure is his wife, Helen Corson Hovenden (1846-1935).
Thomas Hovenden, Self Portrait of the Artist in his Studio, 1875
Yale University Art Gallery
New Haven, Connecticut
1969.28
Thomas Hovenden, Favorite Falcon, 1879
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1923.9.1
In 1886, after his friend Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) was removed as lead instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Hovenden replaced him. Among his students were Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) and Robert Henri (1865-1929).
Hovenden’s portrait of ethnologist Frank Hamilton Cushing (1857-1900), with hints of impressionism, is a fine portrait. Yet when Thomas Eakins painted the same subject five years later, the representation of Cushing took on a new life. In Eakins’ earth and rust tones, Hovenden deserves a nod of homage.
Thomas Hovenden, Frank Hamilton Cushing, 1890
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Washington, DC, 1999.44 006
Thomas Eakins, Frank Hamilton Cushing, 1895
Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Hovenden’s painting, Last Moments of John Brown, was so appealing and popular that his image of the controversial man was fixed in the American mind for decades. Then, in 1938-1940, in the Kansas Statehouse Mural, Tragic Prelude, John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) merged Hovenden’s recognizable image with Michelangelo’s God in the Sistine Chapel and sculpture of Moses in Rome. Curry unforgettably altered the conception of John Brown.
Thomas Hovenden, The Last Moments of John Brown, ca. 1884
Oil on Canvas, 46 x 31 inches
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco 1979.7.60
John Steuart Curry, Tragic Prelude, 1938-1940
Kansas State House, Topeka, Kansas
The National Academy of Design created a concise biography of Thomas Hovenden For more depth, see Thomas Hovenden: His Life and Art.
[1] Michael Schantz, Thomas Hovenden: American Painter of Hearth and Homeland, http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/8aa/8aa547.htm
