Chester Harding

Chester Harding (September 1, 1792 – April 1, 1866)

Career Harding's self-portrait, , at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the War of 1812, he marched as a drummer with the militia to the St Lawrence.

He painted several other portraits at Pittsburgh, and then went to Paris, Kentucky, where he finished 100 portraits in six months at $25 each. He made enough money to take him to the schools at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He then established himself in St. Louis, and eventually went on the road as an itinerant portrait painter. In August 1823, he went to England and set up a studio in London, and spent three years in studying and painting. He met with great success, painting royalty and the nobility, and, despite the lack of an early education and social experience, he became a favorite in all circles. In 1828, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary Academician.

He wrote My Egotistography, which was privately printed. Samuel Rogers, Sir Archibald Allison, and the Dukes of Norfolk, Hamilton, and Sussex. Harding is the only known painter who painted Daniel Boone from life. His last work was a portrait of Gen. William T. Sherman.

Personal life

On February 14, 1815, Harding was married to Caroline Matilda Woodruff (1795–1845) near Caledonia in Livingston County, New York. Caroline was the daughter of James Woodruff. Together, they were the parents of nine children, including four sons, two each who fought on opposing sides in the Civil War:

Mary Ophelia Harding (1818–1892), who married John Marshall Krum (1810–1888), the 11th Mayor of St. Louis, in 1839. James Harding (1830–1902), a General in the Missouri State Guard and Major in the Confederate States Army. He married Christina Amelia Cordell (1834–1899) in 1855.

His wife died on August 27, 1845, in Springfield, Massachusetts. and is buried in Springfield Cemetery in Springfield.

Descendants Through his son Horace, he was the paternal grandfather of William P. G. Harding (1864–1930), the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and Chester Harding (1866–1936), the Governor of the Panama Canal Zone from 1917 to 1921 who, late in life, also became a noted portrait painter.

Portrait gallery