Howland was born February 12, 1838 in Walpole, New Hampshire. He was the son of Aaron Prentiss and Huldah (Burke) Howland, and the direct descendant of John Howland, one of the first settlers in New England. His father was an architect and builder.
He received his education at the Walpole Academy. After working for a time in the shop of an engraver in Boston, he left to go to New York to study art. His real goal was Düsseldorf, Germany. There he spent a year in the academy under Andreas Müller.
For two years he worked in the studio of Albert Flamm. Then he went to Paris, where he worked in private studios, especially that of Émile Lambinet. On his return to America he settled in New York City, where he maintained his winter studio. At one time he taught art at Cooper Union.
Howland was not an artist of outstanding ability, and his artistic problems were simple. His work, nonetheless, had sensitiveness and dignity. He painted occasional pictures of historical interest, such as "The Fight Between the Kearsarge and the Alabama" which is owned by the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and "The Yale Fence" which was given to Yale College by Chauncey M. Depew. He also painted a number of character studies. The major part of his work was concerned with the presentation of quiet ponds, and roads, and streams.
The influence of the Barbizon school and of the Impressionists is distinctly noticeable in his paintings. It is characteristic of him that he was one of the few Academicians who were not hostile to the early exhibitions of the Impressionists. Late in life Howland established a winter home in Pasadena, Cal. , where he died. Summers he had spent in Vermont and New Hampshire, and in Williamstown, N. Y.
He was made an associate of the National Academy of Design in the seventies and in 1882 he became a member.
He was a man of gentle moods – gay, kindly, and sensitive – and his pictures reflected his spirit.
He had married, on January 26, 1871, Clara Ward, by whom he had two children.
