Thomas Hovenden
Thomas Hovenden
1840 - 1895
American painter of Irish birth. He was orphaned when he was six and was apprenticed to a frame carver and gilder at fourteen. His master encouraged him to enrol at the Cork School of Design. In 1863 Hovenden immigrated to New York and supported himself by colouring photographs and making frames. He attended night classes at the National Academy of Design, but was attracted to Paris in 1874, where he immersed himself in the academic painting of Jules Breton and Alexandre Cabanel and joined the artists’ colony at Pont-Aven. In 1880 he returned to New York with his new wife, the painter Helen Corson (1846–1935), and the following year they settled near Philadelphia. Hovenden’s favourite subjects were interiors; he is best remembered for Breaking Home Ties (1890; Philadelphia, PA, Mus. A.), which was voted the most popular picture at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. It depicts a young man leaving his rural home to make his fame and fortune in the city. The painting conveys a powerful and genuine sentimentality that is saved from excess by the solidity of the compositional structure, derived from his French training.
In general, Hovenden’s output is characterized by naturalism of detail and overall clarity (see fig.). Although he was primarily a genre painter, he also painted some Impressionistic landscapes, with softened forms and a lighter palette. He was elected Academician of the National Academy of Design, New York, in 1882 and succeeded Thomas Eakins as instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1886. He was killed by a train while trying to save a child. [H. Nichols B. Clark. "Hovenden, Thomas." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 8, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T039110.]
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