Background
Howe was born at Ravenna, Ohio, in 1846, the son of Elisha B. and Celestia (Russell) Howe, and a descendant of one of the embattled farmers who took part in the fight at Lexington in 1775.
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William Henry Howe
Edit ProfileEducation
He was educated in the public schools of Ravenna. It was not until he was nearly forty years old that he decided to study painting. After some elementary work in drawing, he went to Düsseldorf in 1880 and entered the Royal Academy, where he remained for two years. Then he went to Paris to continue his studies under Otto de Thoren, the Austrian cattle painter. Heworked with his master until 1889 and was then taken as a pupil by Félix de Vuillefroy, another able animal painter, under whom he studied until 1893, when he returned to America.
Career
At the age of eighteen he enlisted in the Union army and was detailed for special duty at the Johnson Island military prison. At the close of the Civil War he went to Grand Rapids, Mich. , engaging there in mercantile activities, thence to St. Louis, where he worked in a drygoods store.
During the long period of almost thirteen years in Düsseldorf and Paris he worked hard, and from early in the eighties he exhibited his pictures in the Salon and in the United States. Much of his fieldwork was done in Normandy and Holland. After his return to America Howe set up a studio in New York, but very soon he moved to Bronxville, N. Y. , being one of the founders of the artist colony there. He spent many of his summers at Old Lyme, Connecticut, where he enjoyed the companionship of Bruce Crane, Henry R. Poore, Willard Metcalf, Childe Hassam, Carleton Wiggins, and the other painters who frequented the village.
His work, which was interesting for its sympathetic interpretation of animal character, received gratifying recognition at home and abroad. He was a worthy disciple of the modern animalier, Constant Troyon, of whose work he wrote an interesting appreciation for a volume entitled Modern French Masters (1896), edited by John C. Van Dyke. His qualities as a painter are studious fidelity to nature rather than brilliancy or charm of style; good drawing and composition; and landscape backgrounds well in accord with the animals in the foreground.
Howe's death occurred at his home in Bronxville in his eighty-third year. A memorial exhibition of his work, containing about one hundred finished pictures and many sketches, was held at his studio in May 1929. The paintings shown on this occasion were chosen by his artist friends and neighbors, Will Low, Bruce Crane, Hobart Nichols, and Peter Schladermundt.
Achievements
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The list of his honors is too long to cite in full; it is enough to mention a first-class medal awarded at the Paris Exposition of 1889; the Temple gold medal of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1890; the grand gold medal of the Crystal Palace Exposition of 1890. His pictures hang in the National Gallery, Washington, and the art museums of St. Louis, Cleveland, Grand Rapids, and other cities. Probably no more characteristic examples can be cited than the "Monarch of the Farm" in the National Gallery and the "Norman Bull" in the St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts.
Membership
He was elected a member of the National Academy in 1897 and made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1899.
Connections
On June 26, 1876, he was married to Julia May Clark of St. Louis.
References
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Born
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Died
March 16, 1929 (aged 83) -
Nationality
American