Henry Bacon (1839 – 1912)
American painter Henry Bacon was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts. During the American Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army. After the war, he studied art with Walter Gay, who suggested that he travel to Paris to undertake a formal art education. In 1864, he went to Paris, with his first wife Elizabeth Lord, to study figure painting.
He was admitted to the National School of Fine Arts and was one of Alexandre Cabanel’s scholars. He went also to Brittany and passing through Pont-Aven, he fell in love with the place. Back in Paris, he mentioned the place to his friends painters. He is credited to have been the first painter from a long group of painters to come to Pont-Aven including Paul Gauguin. This period is known nowadays as the Pont-Aven School.
He exhibited at the salon from 1868 through to 1896 with genre works which had found favour with the American market. In 1897, he travelled to Egypt for the first time and began regularly spending winters there. At that time, he switched from oils to watercolours which he believed was the optimal medium to capture the transparent light of the Middle East.
Bacon died of a heart attack in Cairo, Egypt, in 1912.
A List of important works of the Artist. Visit the gallery with large-size images, date, size, location and technical information.
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