(American, 1866 - 1942)
River View
Oil on canvas 18 x 14 inches
Inscribed on canvas verso: (in ink) “Henry McCarter/TO MY FRIEND/MISS PEEL/July 1891”
The inscription refers to the Canadian painter Mildred Peel. She and her brother, the artist Paul Peel, attended the Pennsylvania Academy around the same time as McCarter.
About the Artist
(American, 1866 - 1942)
The painter, illustrator, and teacher Henry McCarter was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He studied with Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) in Philadelphia, and with Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898), Leon-Joseph-Florentin Bonnat (1833-1922) and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1846-1901) in Paris. He returned to Philadelphia and became a member of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and a teacher at the Academy's school in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. McCarter exhibited at various shows and expositions winning two gold medals at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, and gold medals at the Philadelphia Art Club in 1935 and 1936. In 1930 he was awarded the prestigious Joseph Pennell Memorial Prize from the Pennsylvania Academy, and he won another prize at the Academy in 1939. His works are in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy (nine works). A prolific draughtsman, McCarter did illustrations for various magazines, including Scribner's, The Century, Harper's, and Collier's. He also illustrated the works of the American poet Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909) and of the French poet Paul Verlaine (1844-1896).
