His father had gone from England to Egypt as the representative of an English banking house and died in 1859.
On June 7, 1888, he married Helen Amelia Millard, daughter of Henry S. Millard, of North Adams, Massachussets A son was born to them.
He was sent to the Drury Academy at North Adams from 1869 to 1878, with a brief interregnum.
The widow returned to England with her infant son and shortly determined to come to the United States.
They moved from Titusville to North Adams, Massachussets, when the boy was about eleven years old.
An appointment had been obtained for him to the United States Military Academy at West Point, but he stayed there only a short time.
He returned to North Adams and then at the age of twenty went to Paris and entered the atelier of Léon Bonnat.
A year after his arrival in Paris his "Young Bacchus" was hung in the Salon.
In the spring of this year (1879), in company with Henry Walker, he went to Spain, spent a month in Madrid, copying the Velasquez pictures, and, after visiting Toledo, Seville, and Granada, returned to Paris, where he sold his first picture.
In 1883 he exhibited at the Salon "The Etchers" and "Le Récit, " both of which were sold.
He remained in France eight years, spending several summers at Rablay, in Anjou.
"In those impressionable years, " he wrote, "I acquired an affection for France and its people that has always remained" (H. Siddons Mowbray, post, p. 24).
One of his first patrons was Thomas B. Clarke, who bought four of his pictures, "Scheherazade, " "Aladdin, " "The Evening Breeze, " and "The Last Favorite. "
In 1890 he had bought a house in West Eleventh Street and converted the upper floor into a studio.
There he lived until 1907 when he moved to Washington, Connecticut, where he passed the rest of his life.
I wanted above all things to do mural work" (H. Siddons Mowbray, p. 56).
His first small commission came from Thomas B. Clarke in 1889.
In 1892 a more important opportunity was offered him: this was a series of twenty-one lunettes in the main hall of Collis P. Huntington's New York mansion, a commission which kept him busy for two years.
From this time until the end of his life his desire to do mural work was fully gratified.
In 1896 he painted "The Transmission of the Law, " a frieze in the Appellate Court House, New York.
In 1897 he decorated the ceiling of the drawing-room in the F. W. Vanderbilt mansion at Hyde Park, N. Y.
The color scheme is opalescent, with a play of rose pinks, blue-greens, violets, mauves, and reds.
He collaborated with E. H. Blashfield in the work in the board-room of the Prudential Life Insurance Company at Newark, N. J.
He decorated the J. P. Morgan library; Larz Anderson's house in Washington; the United States court room in the Federal Building at Cleveland, Ohio; the ceiling of the Gunn Memorial Library, Washington, Connecticut; a gallery in the home of Breckenridge Long, St. Louis, Mo. ; the chancel of St. John's Church, Washington, Connecticut; the chancel of St. Michael's Church, Litchfield, Connecticut; a triptych in a private chapel; and the pediment of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, New York.
Other sources are: Royal Cortissoz, article in Scribner's Mag. , May 1928; Pauline King, Am.
Mural Painting (1902); Mich.
State Lib. , Biog.
Sketches of Am.
Artists (1924); Am.
Returning to the United States in 1886, he settled in New York, became an academician, a member of the Society of American Artists, and took charge of the men's life classes at the Art Students' League.
The oval central panel, ten by eighteen feet in dimensions, represents a scene from the legend of Ceres and Proserpine--Mercury bringing back the daughter for whom her mother has mourned.
His wife died on Aug. 5, 1912, and three years later he married her sister, Florence Gertrude Millard, by whom he had a son and a daughter.
Mowbray, Henry Siddons, (Aug. 5, 1858 - Jan. 13, 1928), Egypt 1858 1928 Male Painter figure and mural painter, was born at Alexandria, Egypt, of English parents, John Henry and Eliza (Fade) Siddons.
His wife died on Aug. 5, 1912, and three years later he married her sister, Florence Gertrude Millard, by whom he had a son and a daughter.
His wife died on Aug. 5, 1912, and three years later he married her sister, Florence Gertrude Millard, by whom he had a son and a daughter.
A full account of the life and work of Mowbray is given in H. Siddons Mowbray, Mural Painter, 1858-1928 (1928), the privately printed volume issued by his wife and edited by H. F. Sherwood.
His wife died on Aug. 5, 1912, and three years later he married her sister, Florence Gertrude Millard, by whom he had a son and a daughter.
Not long after their arrival she was burned to death in Brooklyn, and the boy was adopted by his uncle and aunt, George q.v. and Annie (Fade) Mowbray who were then living at Titusville, Pa.
Not long after their arrival she was burned to death in Brooklyn, and the boy was adopted by his uncle and aunt, George q.v. and Annie (Fade) Mowbray who were then living at Titusville, Pa.
