Thomas Hovenden

Thomas Hovenden (December 28, 1840 – August 14, 1895) was an Irish-born painter and teacher who spent most of his life in the United States. He painted historical works, domestic scenes and narrative subjects, some depicting African Americans.

Biography Self-Portrait of the Artist in His Studio (1875), Yale University Art Gallery. Hovenden was born in Dunmanway, County Cork, Ireland. Both his parents died in the 1845-1852 Great Famine, and he was placed in an orphanage at the age of six. Apprenticed to a carver and gilder, he studied at the Cork School of Design.

Hovenden immigrated to the United States in 1863, and studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City. Thomas Hovenden made Abolition Hall his studio.

Hovenden was commissioned by Robbins Battell, of Norfolk, Connecticut, to paint a historical picture of the executed abolitionist leader John Brown. Hovenden's The Last Moments of John Brown (1884), is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Hovenden also painted a two-thirds replica, that is in the collection of the de Young Museum in San Francisco.

Hovenden's Breaking Home Ties (1890), a picture of American family life, caused a sensation at the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois. It was engraved with considerable popular success. Hovenden House, Barn and Abolition Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Hovenden was buried across the street in the cemetery of the Plymouth Friends Meetinghouse.

Selected works Self-Portrait of the Artist in His Studio, 1875, Yale University Art Gallery Image Seller, 1876, Metropolitan Museum of Art News from the Conscript, 1877 Loyalist Peasant Soldier of La Vendée, 1877 A Breton Interior, 1793, 1878, Metropolitan Museum of Art The Favorite Falcon, 1879, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia In Hoc Signo Vinces, 1880, Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady, 1880, Woodmere Art Museum, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia The Old Version, 1881, San Francisco Museum of Fine Art The Revised Version, 1881, National Academy of Design, New York City Sunday Morning, 1881, San Francisco Museum of Fine Art Chloe and Sam, 1882, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas Dem Was Good Ole Times, 1882, oil on canvas, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia Dem Was Good Ole Times, 1882, watercolor, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina Elaine, 1882, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania The Last Moments of John Brown, 1884, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art The Last Moments of John Brown, 1884, oil on canvas, de Young Museum, San Francisco. A 2/3-size replica. Taking His Ease, 1885, San Francisco Museum of Fine Art I Know'd It Was Ripe, 1885, Brooklyn Museum Their Pride, 1888, Union League Club of New York Breaking Home Ties, 1890, Philadelphia Museum of Art Where the Robins Sing (1890), Woodmere Art Museum, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia Bringing Home the Bride, 1893, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota Jerusalem the Golden, 1894, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrayal of African Americans Hovenden taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. One of his students was Henry Ossawa Tanner, an African American who was possibly one of the first Black students to attend the school. Tanner would be famous for painting two images of African Americans, different for portraying them with dignity. These were The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor.

Among Hovenden's works was a series of portraits of two elderly African Americans. His images were different than many made by his contemporaries, because he showed the Black couple as having a sense of dignity, rather than being caricatures. However, he has also been accused of portraying African Americans from a superior point-of-view, the images showing people content in their poverty.