Harper Pennington

Robert Goodloe Harper Pennington (October 9, 1854 – March 15, 1920) was an American artist and writer known for his portraits of New York and Newport socialites.

Early life Pennington was born on October 9, 1854, in Baltimore, Maryland, and was named after his great-grandfather, the former U.S. Senator Robert Goodloe Harper. He was the son of William Clapham Pennington (1829–1913) and Emily Louisa (née Harper) Pennington (1835–1908). His brother was Dr. Clapham Pennington.

His paternal grandparents were Baltimore lawyer Josias Pennington (a close friend of John Pendleton Kennedy) His cousin, Josias Pennington, was a prominent architect with Baldwin & Pennington. His maternal grandparents were Charlotte Hutchinson (née Cheffelle) Harper and Charles Carroll Harper, the eldest son and heir of Robert Goodloe Harper and Catherine (née Carroll) Harper (a daughter of Charles Carroll of Carrollton). Catherine's sister Mary was the wife of Richard Caton (namesake of Catonsville, Maryland).

Career Pennington's Portrait of Robert Gould Shaw II as "Little Billee" from the novel Trilby, a painting said to be owned by Harry Lehr and hung in his bedroom.

Pennington studied art under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1880, while in Munich, he was advised to join a group of American painters led by Frank Duveneck in Florence, known as the "Duveneck boys", which included John White Alexander, Otto Henry Bacher, Robert Frederick Blum, Charles Abel Corwin, George Edward Hopkins, Julius Rolshoven and Theodore Wendel. Whistler drew Pennington's portrait in chalk and pastel. Whistler invited Pennington to return with him to London in 1880, but Pennington decided to travel and paint around Italy. He also created fifteen engravings from drawings for Wilde's 1889 essay, London Models. Pennington was a frequent visitor to Tite Street to see Whistler (whom he drew in 1885 while Whistler gave his Ten O'clock Lecture). In 1886 or 1887, Whistler drew Pennington's portrait for a second time. In 1899, Pennington wrote a letter to The New York Times, which was published in response to Layton Crippen's criticism of Henry Kirke Brown's sculpture of Washington in Union Square, where Pennington wrote:

"Art is unlike trade. A masterpiece cannot be short measure; it is too personal. In conclusion, I would like to remind Mr. Crippen that some (very many, too,) of the greatest living sculptors are Americans. Indeed, no foreigners can give us points on art matters any longer. Of course, the 'good Americans,' whose eyes are always fixed on Paris, (where he is said to go when he dies,) cannot yet perceive what has grown up under his feet in architecture, sculpture, and painting, and, after all, in the haste to become rich, nobody cares."

Personal life On October 31, 1888, Pennington was married to Caroline DeWolf Theobald (1869–1962), a daughter of Dr. Samuel Theobald, a leading physician of Baltimore (and grandson of surgeon Nathan Ryno Smith). Before their divorce in 1913, they were the parents of four daughters and one son:

Charlotte Emily Pennington (b. 1889) William Pennington (b. 1900) He was buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.