Background
Alexander Hay Ritchie was born on January 14, 1822 in Glasgow, Scotland.
(Excerpt from Ritchie's Historical Picture, Death of Presi...)
Excerpt from Ritchie's Historical Picture, Death of President Lincoln, Engraved From the Painting The event has passed into history now, and, like other great historical occurrences, it has formed an inspiring theme for the orator, the poet, and the painter, alike. It is to the latter that we have here to devote our consideration, our purpose being to accompany with a few descriptive notes, Mr. A. H. Ritchie's Painting of The Death of Pres ident Lincoln. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Alexander Hay Ritchie was born on January 14, 1822 in Glasgow, Scotland.
He studied drawing in Edinburgh, under Sir William Allan, R. A. , a distinguished historical painter.
He came to the United States in 1841, worked for a short time in Canada, and then settled in New York. About 1847 he established himself as a general engraver in New York City, and was soon enjoying a profitable business and employing assistants, although it is said that he put the finishing touches upon every plate produced in his shop.
Especially able were his engravings of portraits in mezzotint, some of them reproducing his own paintings. He painted in oils and exhibited at the National Academy, making his first appearance there in 1848.
Among his paintings were "Mercy Knocking at the Gate" (1860), "Fitting Out Moses for the Fair" (1862), and "The Death of Lincoln"; while among his best-known portraits are those of Dr. James McCosh, president of Princeton College, and Professors H. M. Alexander and Charles Hodge of the Princeton faculty.
Occasionally he yielded to the need for rapid production and adopted the expedients to which engravers of portraits were occasionally driven, such as scraping out the head on a plate and substituting another; thus his full-length portrait of Abraham Lincoln was originally that of Calhoun. Some very ambitious undertakings in the line of portrait groups were confided to Ritchie, for example, "The Class of 1863" (at Yale College), with no less than forty-eight members; and the "Authors of the United States" (1866), after the original by Thomas Hicks. This last-mentioned plate portrays Irving, Bryant, Cooper, Poe, and the New England writers, in stiff poses, gazing into vacancy with intense earnestness. Ritchie spent his last days in Connecticut, dying in New Haven at the age of seventy-three.
He engraved "The Death of Lincoln, " "Washington and His Generals, " and "Mercy Knocking at the Gate, " after his own paintings; "Contemplation, " after the original by Seymour J. Guy; "Lady Washington's Reception" (otherwise known as "The Republican Court"), by Daniel Huntington, a very elaborate composition containing no less than sixty portraits; also several of Felix O. C. Darley's historical pictures - "The First Blow for Liberty, " depicting the battle at the Concord bridge (1858), "The Last Words of Captain Nathan Hale" (1858), "Washington Entering New York, " and "On the March to the Sea. " His skill and facility in reproductive work were generally recognized, and he was as much at home in mezzotint and etching as in line engraving.
(Excerpt from Ritchie's Historical Picture, Death of Presi...)
