Charles C. Henry

Date1851

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsFramed: 39 1/4 × 32 3/16 × 2 1/2 in. (99.7 × 81.8 × 6.4 cm) Sight: 35 3/4 × 28 5/8 in. (90.8 × 72.7 cm)

Object numberN0263.1961

Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextCharles C. Henry was a leading hoseman for the Howard No. 7 Volunteer Fire Company in Charlestown, Massachusetts. When he was not on duty, he made his living as a restaurateur. In January of 1851, Henry gave a large donation to the Fire Company and was later asked to sit for a portrait. The portrait, presented to Henry on June 9, 1851 at a fireman's ball held in Mechanics Hall, hung in the Hall commemorating the anniversary of the Howard Engine Company. Sturtevant J. Hamblin was the brother-in-law of the well-known folk portrait painter William Matthew Prior (1806-1873) and worked in a similar style. Hamblin lived with the Priors while plying his trade in Boston between 1841 and 1856.
Exhibition History“The Flowering of American Folk Art,” M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA, June 24, 1974 – September 15, 1974; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, April 22, 1974 – June 2, 1974; The Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY, February 1, 1974 – March 24, 1974.

“Folk Art from the Collection of the New York State Historical Association,” American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY, January 11, 2000 – February 18, 2000.

“Artist and Visionary: William Matthew Prior Revealed,” American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY, January 24, 2013 – May 27, 2013; Fenimore House Museum, May 26, 2012 – December 31, 2012.

“Art of the Everyman: American Folk Art from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT, May 28, 2014 – September 29, 2014.
BibliographyJacquelyn Oaks and Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Artist and Visionary: William Matthew Prior Revealed (Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum, 2012).

Paul S. D’Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans, Folk Art’s Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association, (Cooperstown, NY: New York State Historical Association, 1987), p.97.

Jean Lipman and Alice Winchester, The Flowering of American Folk Art, 1776-1876, (New York: Viking Press, 1974), p.36.

Agnes Jones and Louis C. Jones, New Found Folk Art of the Young Republic (exh. cat. Cooperstown, NY: New York State Historical Association, 1960), p.18-19.

On View

On view