Thomas Buchanan Read, American poet.
American poet, painter, and sculptor.
Thomas Buchanan Read was an American poet and painter. Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, he wandered across the northeast, engaging in a number of professions to make ends meet, and studied painting in Italy; he returned to the United States to join the northern army during the Civil War. His paintings tend to be mythological treatments with an artistic spirit but undisciplined technique; his poems are patriotic celebrations of America, extremely popular during the Civil War due in part to a national reading tour by James E. Murdoch.
American artist and poet.
Thomas Buchanan Read was an American poet and painter. Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, he wandered across the northeast, engaging in a number of professions to make ends meet, and studied painting in Italy. His paintings tend to be mythological treatments with an artistic spirit but undisciplined technique; his poems are patriotic celebrations of America, and achieved perhaps their greatest popularity during the Civil War.
Artist and poet.
Thomas Buchanan Read, born in Chester County, PA in 1822, was a poet and painter of portraits and historical scenes. He was apprenticed to a tailor at age 13, but ran away to Cincinnati, OH to paint ships and signs. He later became an assistant to painter Shobal Clevenger. In 1840, Read received his first commission to paint a portrait of William Henry Harrison. A year later, he moved to Boston, MA where he befriended Washington Allston and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In 1846, Read moved to Philadelphia, PA, and in 1850, he made the first of many trips to Europe.
During the Civil War, Read worked for the Union as a lecturer and propagandist. After the war, he returned to Italy where he remained until May 1872, when he returned to America; he died one week after his return to New York City. Read was married and had two daughters. His wife and eldest child died during the cholera plague in Florence, Italy in 1855.