Daniel Huntington American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

, was born in New York City, New York, the son of Benjamin Huntington, Jr. and Faith Trumbull Huntington; his paternal grandfather was Benjamin Huntington

Benjamin Huntington

Benjamin Huntington was an American lawyer, jurist and politician from Norwich, Connecticut. He served in the Revolutionary War with the rank of General. He later served Connecticut as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress and as a member of the U.S...

, delegate at the Second Continental Congress

Second Continental Congress

The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met briefly during 1774,...

 and First U.S. Representative from Connecticut

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

. From 1833 to 1835 he studied at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where he met Charles Loring Elliott

Charles Loring Elliott

Charles Loring Elliott was an American painter known for his portraits. He was active in central New York for 10 years as a young man, then in 1845 moved to New York City to pursue his career. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1846.-Early life and education:Elliott was born at...

, who encouraged Huntington to become an artist.

In 1835 he studied at New York University with Samuel F.B. Morse, and produced "A Bar-Room Politician" and "A Toper Asleep." He first exhibited his work at the National Academy of Design

National Academy of Design

The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...

 in 1836. Subsequently he painted some landscapes in the tradition of the Hudson River School

Hudson River school

The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...

, and in 1839 went to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 and Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 with his friend and pupil Henry Peters Gray

Henry Peters Gray

Henry Peters Gray was an American portrait and genre painter.Born in New York City he was a pupil of Daniel Huntington in New York, and subsequently studied in Rome and Florence...

. On his return to America in 1840, he painted his allegorical painting "Mercy's Dream", which brought him fame and confirmed his interest in inspirational subjects. He also painted portraits and began the illustration of The Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been...

, and in 1844 he went back to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

.

Returning to New York around 1846, he devoted his time chiefly to portrait-painting, although he painted many genre, religious and historical subjects. From 1851 to 1859 he was in England. He was president of the National Academy from 1862 to 1870, and again in 1877-1890. Among his principal works are:

• "The Florentine Girl"
• "Early Christian Prisoners"
• "The Shepherd Boy of the Campagna"
• "The Roman Penitents"
• "Christiana and Her Children"
• "Queen Mary signing the Death-Warrant of Lady Jane Grey"
• "Feckenham in the Tower" (1850)
• "Chocorua" (1860)
• "Republican Court in the Time of Washington" containing sixty-four careful portraits (1861)
• "Philosophy and Christian Art" (1868)
• "Sowing the Word" (1869)
• "St Jerome, Juliet on the Balcony" (1870)
• "The Narrows, Lake George" (1871)
• "Clement VII. and Charles V. at Bologna"
• "Goldsmiths Daughter" (1884)

His principal portraits are:

• "President Lincoln
  Abraham Lincoln
  Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
  
  " in Union League Club, New York
• "Chancellor Ferris of New York University
• "Sir Charles Eastlake
  Charles Eastlake
  Charles Locke Eastlake was a British architect and furniture designer. Trained by the architect Philip Hardwick , he popularised William Morris's notions of decorative arts in the Arts and Crafts style, becoming one of the principal exponents of the revived Early English or Modern Gothic style...
  
   and the earl of Carlyle," the property of the New York Historical Society
• "President Van Buren
  Martin Van Buren
  Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
  
  " in the State Library at Albany
• "James Lenox
  James Lenox
  James Lenox was an American bibliophile and philanthropist. His collection of paintings and books eventually became known as the Lenox Library and later became part of the New York Public Library in 1895.-Biography:...
  
  " in the Lenox Library
• "Louis Agassiz
  Louis Agassiz
  Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was a Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist, geologist and a prominent innovator in the study of the Earth's natural history. He grew up in Switzerland and became a professor of natural history at University of Neuchâtel...
  
  " (1856-1857)
• "William Cullen Bryant
  William Cullen Bryant
  William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.-Youth and education:...
  
  " (1866)
• "Jefferson Davis
  Jefferson Davis
  Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
  
  " (1874)
• "John Adams Dix
  John Adams Dix
  John Adams Dix was an American politician from New York. He served as Secretary of the Treasury, U.S. Senator, and the 24th Governor of New York. He was also a Union major general during the Civil War.-Early life and career:...
  
  " (1880)
• "John Sherman
  John Sherman (politician)
  John Sherman, nicknamed "The Ohio Icicle" , was a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Ohio during the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. He served as both Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State and was the principal author of the Sherman Antitrust Act...
  
  " (1881)
• "Alexander Ramsey
  Alexander Ramsey
  Alexander Ramsey was an American politician. He was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.Alexander Ramsey was elected from Pennsylvania as a Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the 28th and 29th congresses from March 4, 1843 to March 4, 1847...
  
  " (1881)
• "Chester A. Arthur
  Chester A. Arthur
  Chester Alan Arthur was the 21st President of the United States . Becoming President after the assassination of President James A. Garfield, Arthur struggled to overcome suspicions of his beginnings as a politician from the New York City Republican machine, succeeding at that task by embracing...
  
  " (1885)

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External links

• Historic New England. Huntington's portrait of Mary Wheelwright Codman, 1845