Beard, James Henry, 1812-1893

Morgan Lafayette Neville Jr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1855.

James Henry Beard was a well-known Cincinnati portraitist of children. He was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1812 and was a self-taught artist. He lived and worked in Cincinnati from 1834-1876. Upon arriving in Cincinnati, he joined a number of artists who, influenced by the 17th-century Dutch genre paintings, depicted subjects from everyday American life with vivid narrative content and naturalistic details. Such works enjoyed broad appeal with the growing middle class and responded to the prevailing nationalism of the era. Beard eventually left Cincinnati and settled in New York. He died in 1893. Beard painted a variety of subjects, including animals and portraits of prominent people like William Henry Harrison.

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