George P. A. Healy (1813-1894) Part 2

After a short interlude in France at the beginning of 1852, Healy returned to the United States in May. Louisa accompanied her husband for a second time. Once again, they left the children at home with Mrs. Phipps,^[1] and were away for about a year. Their first stop was Boston, where Healy painted a second portrait of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and portraits of Prescott, Longfellow, and others.^[2] Afterwards, Healy traveled to Providence, New York, Philadelphia and Washington.^[3] In addition to portrait commissions, he intended to see to the sale of the large historical painting, Webster Replying to Hayne. Another reason for the Healys’ trip to the United States in 1852 may have been the wedding of George’s only sister, Agnes. On October 28, she and Dr. Dyson were married in Baltimore, Maryland.^[4]

Healy painted Franklin Pierce’s portrait (The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) in November of 1852.^[5] In 1853, a portrait of Pierce, and three other paintings were exhibited at the Massachusetts Academy of Fine Arts, in Boston.^[6] Other portraits by the artist, including those of Louis Philippe, Guizot, Soult, Washington, and Cass, owned by others, were exhibited in February, in Detroit at the Firemen’s Hall.^[7] After spending time in Providence and then Washington,^[8] Mr. and Mrs. Healy sailed from New York in May 1853 for Versailles.^[9] A daughter, Emily, was born to them, on November 18, 1853, in Versailles.^[10] Not long after this, Healy again returned to the United States for a short trip.^[11]

In 1855, Healy painted a double portrait of his two oldest girls, Agnes and Mary (J. B. Speed Memorial Museum, Louisville, KY),^[12] and a portrait of Charles Goodyear (1800-1860), on rubber (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC). Goodyear’s portrait was one of twenty paintings by the artist shown in 1855 at the Paris Salon/Universal Exposition. Among his works were portraits of Pierce, Soult, Webster, Goodyear and family, Piatt, Evans, the artist Rossiter—who had included Healy in a group portrait in 1842—and Jackson.^[13] Also included was Healy’s large historical painting, depicting French-American relations,^[14] Franklin before Louis XVI. The artist won a medal, second class, for this painting,^[15] and was granted the status, “hors concours,” whereby he was allowed to enter paintings in future Paris Salons, without prior approval from the jury.^[16]

In Paris, during the summer of 1855, Dr. Brainard introduced Healy to William Butler Ogden (1805-1877).^[17] Ogden, who had made his fortune in railroads, had served as Chicago’s first mayor in 1837. He sat for his portrait (unlocated; copy of 1855 portrait, c.1878, Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, IL), and persuaded Healy to visit him in Chicago. In the fall of 1855, Healy traveled to that city “for the first time.”^[18] There he stayed at the Ogden house—where Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon, sister and brother-in-law of William Ogden, were living.^[19] In his Reminiscences, Healy later recalled that among the first portraits he painted while in Chicago, was one of Mr. Sheldon and two Children.^[20] Elsewhere, he counted the Brainards and I. A. Arnold among his first patrons.^[21] Healy later wrote that he only intended to stay “a month or six weeks,” but instead stayed fourteen years.^[22] No doubt there was ample opportunity in Chicago for portrait commissions. The small town on the prairie was in a period of great boom, the fastest growing city in the country in the 19^th century and soon to become the country’s second largest city.

He remained a guest of Mr. Sheldon for a year.^[23] During his first year in Chicago, Healy painted numerous portraits.^[24] In the same year, 1855, the sculptor, Leonard Volk (1828-1895) “adopted Chicago as his home.”^[25] About a dozen years later, these two artists were identified as having “taken the lead” among Chicago’s “few great artists.”^[26]

Healy’s daughter, Mary, later recalled that, in Paris on the Rue de Ponthieu, near the Champs-Elysées, her mother read letters to her from her father.^[27] While Healy was in Chicago, his son, George Louis was born on December 29, 1855, in Paris.^[28] The following year, 1856, Louisa, her eighty-four year old mother, Mrs. Phipps, a nurse and the six children traveled to Chicago to join the artist.^[29] The family lived at the Ogden house at first, but moved to a wooden frame house in November.^[30] Healy’s working address was at the Exchange Bank buildings.^[31]

As indicated by the Healy portraits in the Chicago Historical Society, over time the painter’s sitters included the city’s wealthy elite such as members of the Blair, McCagg, McCormick, Newberry, Ogden, Ryerson, Scammon, Wentworth, and Whitehead families.^[32] The Healys made many friends among George’s sitters. Healy recalled that, besides the Ogdens and Sheldons, the Kinzies, Rumseys, Brainards, and the McCaggs were family friends.^[33] Ezra B. McCagg was identified as one of his “best and dearest” friends.^[34] Mary Healy remembered the families of Judge Drummond, Judge Mark Skinner, and Isaac N. Arnold, as friends.^[35] Another recollection of life in Chicago for Mary was that of attending the Lane and Baker School for about one year, with her sister Agnes. The school was run by Miss Lane and Miss Baker, in a church basement.^[36]

In 1857 the family moved to Cottage Hill (today, Elmhurst), located outside of Chicago, for the “sake of the children’s health.”^[37] Healy bought a house there called, “Hill Cottage,” in the summer of 1857, from Thomas Barbour Bryan, his patron and lawyer. ^[38] Hill Cottage had the distinction of being the first house built in the town,^[39] and had served as the original Cottage Hill Tavern.^[40] Healy renamed the house, “Clover Lawn,” and his family, including wife, six daughters and one son, lived there for six years.^[41] The artist painted portraits of the Bryan family—who lived in “Bird’s Nest,” a house nearby—and the two families intermingled.^[42] Among the portraits of members of the Bryan family is a group portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Barbour Bryan, and Jennie (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond),^[43] and one of Mrs. Thomas B. Bryan (National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC).^[44] Mary Healy later recalled that their home had many “low-ceilinged rooms,” and that their mother found their stay in the country “rather austere.”^[45] The children had a governess. After about a year, the elder daughters were sent to a convent school in Wheeling, Virginia.^[46] The family later moved back to Chicago in 1863^[47]

In 1857 Healy received a commission from Congress to paint a series of presidential portraits.^[48] He worked on portraits of Millard Fillmore and Martin Van Buren in 1857. He painted one full-length portrait of Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) (The White House, Washington, DC), the thirteenth U.S. president (1850-1853), in February, and in December, another, smaller portrait of Fillmore (Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC).^[49] A small portrait of Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) (Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC), was painted by Healy in April, in Philadelphia.^[50]

Healy’s commission for the presidential portrait series gave him reason to spend time in Washington. Although his home was in Chicago in 1857, his address is given as “Washington” in the exhibition catalogue of the National Academy of Design, New York, for that year.^[51] Four paintings by Healy were exhibited at the First Annual Exhibition of the Washington Art Association in 1857, including portraits of Hon. Reverdy Johnson, Jo. Gales, Hon. J. J. Crittenden (National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC), and his Franklin before Louis XVI.^[52] In August of 1857, Healy was back in Chicago, intending to return to Washington the following spring.^[53] At some point in 1857, George’s brother, Thomas Cantwell visited him in Chicago. During his visit, George painted a portrait of him.^[54]

In 1858, the family home was established in Cottage Hill and Healy had a working address in Chicago, at 131 Lake Street.^[55] Throughout the year the artist continued painting portraits prodigiously, in different parts of the country, and working on his commission from the U.S. Government, for the series of presidential portraits. In 1858 he painted three portraits in the series, Martin Van Buren, John Quincy Adams, and James Knox Polk. Healy communicated with Hiram Powers regarding another subject in the series, Andrew Jackson, and on November 25, 1858, wrote to yet another president, James Buchanan, regarding sittings for his portrait.^[56]

In January of 1858, a full-length portrait of Millard Fillmore, the first portrait painted in the series, was on exhibition in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington.^[57] Healy referred to this completed portrait of Fillmore in his letter written on January 14, 1858, to a representative of Congress. He suggested that all of the portraits should be full-length, as that of Fillmore, and also indicated that he was ready to enter into a contract for the presidential series.^[58] Healy planned to spend about a month in Kinderhook, New York, painting the portrait of former president, Martin Van Buren.^[59] Portrait of Van Buren (The White House, Washington, DC) was painted in April.^[60] Portrait of Franklin Pierce (The White House, Washington, DC) was painted in Chicago, in May,^[61] and John Quincy Adams’s portrait (The White House, Washington, DC; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) was painted in July.^[62]

In August, the portraits of Adams and Pierce were on display in Healy’s studio, which was “open to his friends every Thursday afternoon.” ^[63] Healy painted a portrait of former President James Knox Polk (The White House, Washington, DC) in October, in Chicago.^[64] Three other portraits painted by Healy in 1858, were of Mrs. Stephen A. Douglas (Virginia Historical Society, Richmond),^[65] and two of influential men: Alexander Hamilton Stephens (The Georgia State Law Library, Atlanta), later Governor of Georgia,^[66] and, the Mayor of Chicago, John Wentworth (1814-1888) (New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, NH).^[67]

The Healy’s ninth and last child, Kathleen, was born on June 27, 1858, at Cottage Hill.^[68] Around this time, the third eldest daughter, Edith, born in 1848, was sent to school in Wheeling, West Virginia.^[69] In addition to her regular studies, Edith played the harp. When she was ten, Edith’s father visited the school and painted a Christ Child (Mount de Chantal Academy, Wheeling, WV) for the Chapel’s altar. Edith posed for the hands and feet in the painting.^[70]

In 1859, Healy’s itinerary included trips to St. Louis, Wheeling, Washington, Philadelphia, Louisville and New Orleans.^[71] He continued working on the presidential series, painting portraits of former president John Tyler (The White House, Washington, DC; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC),^[72] in February, and President Buchanan, in June and October. Of the three portraits by Healy exhibited at the National Academy of Design, New York, beginning in May, one was of Tyler.^[73]

On May 9, 1859, the first “Fine Art Exposition of the Northwest” opened at Burch’s Building, on the corner of Wabash Avenue and Lake Street in Chicago.^[74] Leonard Volk was appointed Superintendent, and organized the exhibition.^[75] Eighteen works by Healy were included.^[76] This has been generally recognized as the first fine arts exhibition in Chicago.^[77]

President Buchanan (1791-1868) sat for Healy in Washington (National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC),^[78] in June and again in September (full-length, Dickenson College, Carlisle, PA; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) for finishing touches.^[79] Upon completion of Buchanan’s portrait, Healy wrote to Hiram Powers, regarding three additional works, those of Jackson, Taylor, and Harrison, which Healy planned to paint in Chicago. He wrote, “when they are painted, I shall have completed my ten, the first five were painted by Stuart.”^[80] He also let Powers know that Powers’ cast of Jackson’s head, which was sent to aid him in painting this portrait, had arrived.^[81]

By the end of the year, Healy’s commission for the presidential series for the government seemed somewhat fraught with bureaucratic uncertainties as to the number and sizes of the paintings desired, and payment for them. Characteristically, however, Healy continued working on the portraits, and communicating with Congress, demonstrating both Healy’s persevering, good nature and his business sense. On December 12, Healy wrote to President Buchanan, offering him his full-length portrait for acquisition. He suggested that he would be willing to take back his half-length portraits, and to make all the presidential portraits the same size, if so desired.^[82]

At the end of the month, the artist may have entered into a different business agreement with Thomas B. Bryan. On December 28, 1859, Healy seems to have signed papers buying property in Chicago from Bryan. The payment for the property was to be in paintings, cash, and transfer of the Clover Lawn property.^[83] Although the artist did sell Bryan a large number of portraits, as well as the original study for Webster’s Reply to Hayne, and the prize-winning, Franklin Near Louis XVI,^[84] he may not have included the Cottage Hill property in this particular arrangement.^[85]

Healy worked on portraits for about two months at the end of 1859, in Louisville, Kentucky, where he reported having “good success.” He returned home for three weeks in December, then traveled to New Orleans on December 29, 1859.^[86] There he worked with his brother, Thomas, planning to stay until April 1860, and then to proceed on to Alabama.^[87] Among his New Orleans paintings are portraits of Mrs. (Sally Hunt) Ward (The J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY), and Mrs. Thomas Jenkins Semmes, whom he identified as a “good Catholic.”^[88] After a financially successful season in the South, Healy went back to Louisville, Kentucky in May to paint portraits, and returned home to Cottage Hill for the summer.^[89] In September and October he journeyed to Virginia, Philadelphia, and Boston, and was again home at Clover Lawn by the end of the year.^[90]

An important commission was that given by Thomas B. Bryan to Healy in the fall of 1860 to paint the recently elected President, Abraham Lincoln, in Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln sat for Healy “three or four” times.^[91] The resultant portrait was Healy’s ‘beardless’ Lincoln (The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC).^[92] It was finished by November 15, and on view in Healy’s Chicago studio at 133 Lake Street by November 17.^[93] Although he later painted other portraits of Lincoln, Healy recalled these as the President’s only sittings for him.^[94] With this painting of Lincoln, Bryan’s collection of presidential portraits by Healy was brought up to date.^[95]

Healy exhibited nearly two dozen paintings at the “First Chicago Art Union Distribution” exhibition, at Hestler’s Gallery beginning on December 7, 1860. Two of his works were offered as part of the distribution: a life-sized Portrait of Col. T. L. Harris, of Illinois, painted from life, and, The Prayer, a life-sized head of a Girl with veil. Among his other works were two portraits of presidents, two of bishops, and three of artists.^[96] At the beginning of 1861, Healy visited Washington,^[97] and for a week, Havanna, Cuba,^[98] before traveling on to New Orleans.

A prelude to the Civil War was the secession from the Union, in December of 1860, of South Carolina—the first of the Southern states to do so. On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began with the fall of the federally-built and manned Fort Sumter (Charleston, South Carolina) to the seceded Southern states. General Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard (1818-1893) ordered the first shot on Fort Sumter.^[99] Incredibly, Healy was in Charleston at the time, working on a portrait of Beauregard (City Hall, Charleston, SC; Newberry Library, Chicago, IL; copy by T.C. Healy, Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans, LA), with Fort Sumter depicted in the background.^[100] Healy had begun the portrait in New Orleans, where he had several other commissions, and he followed Beauregard to Charleston to complete it.^[101] After the attack on Fort Sumter, reference to Healy appeared in a Charleston paper to the effect that if he did not leave before sundown, he would be “tarred and feathered.”^[102] Healy heeded the warning upon advice from a friend. He went to New Orleans, and then to Chicago via Wheeling, West Virginia, where he collected his three daughters from school.^[103] During the Civil War, Healy’s brother, William, enlisted with the Confederates.^[104] For the Union, Healy painted a banner for the 37^th Illinois infantry (called, the ‘Fremont Rifles’).^[105]

For the most part Healy remained at Cottage Hill through the end of 1861.^[106] He admitted to a friend, in a letter written in August, to being in debt and not having enough portrait commissions to support his family. T.B. Bryan helped to alleviate some of the debt by purchasing Healy’s interest in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.^[107] At the end of the year Healy’s work included painting a full-length portrait of Andrew Jackson for Congress.^[108]

Healy spent the first half of 1862 in Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Wheeling, the summer in Clover Lawn, and the remainder in Chicago. While in Washington, Healy was involved in a discussion in regard to the placement of his series of presidential portraits ordered by Congress.^[109] In a letter to Mrs. Goddard in August, Healy wrote of a plan for fifty of his paintings and $100 each from fifty men to “form the commencement of a permanent gallery in Chicago bearing his name.”^[110] A receipt from Healy to Thomas Hoyne for $100, “for his subscription to Healy’s gallery,” shows that he had made some progress towards his goal by November of 1862.^[111] Leonard Volk, who together with Healy, worked to further art interests in Chicago, assisted the painter towards the goal of the formation of an art gallery, although the idea of having it named after Healy seemed to have changed at some point. An essay about Volk, in Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of Chicago, published in 1868, describes the two artists’ interests, and the status of the planned art gallery, as follows:

“He Volk has ever been active, in conjunction with George P.A. Healy, the great portrait painter, in behalf of art, and in assisting such of his fellow artists as were struggling for success. He succeeded in getting subscribers to purchase Mr. Healy’s valuable private gallery of paintings, which have been placed in the keeping of Hon. J.Y. Scammon, to be held in trust for the subscribers. A chartered association has recently been formed, which will in due time open a public Art Gallery, with this collection as a nucleus.”^[112]

Volk had canvassed the city for six months, and raised subscriptions for $4,000, which amount Healy accepted.^[113]

During the summer of 1862, the artist gave his neighbor, Mrs. Bryan, portraits of her sisters. Perhaps he also gave her an idea of the possibility of the Healy family’s departure from Cottage Hill. He wrote in a letter to her, dated July 6, 1862 that, “should circumstances force us to leave this lovely spot, I hope the sight of them will recall to your mind one who has received so many kindnesses at the hands of you and yours.”^[114] At some point during the year, the Healys had planned to move from Clover Lawn to Boston. They decided instead however, to relocate to Chicago as Louisa’s mother was too ill to move farther away.^[115] By November of 1862, the Healys had sold Clover Lawn and moved to 247 Illinois Street in Chicago. The artist was pleased to be in Chicago, near his studio and his church, and also glad that having much work to do, he was nearly ‘out of debt.’^[116] Among the portraits painted by Healy in 1862, were those of the poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA), and of Mrs. Volk and her daughter, Honore (The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC).^[117]

Orestes A. Brownson (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA), a New Englander, was one of Healy’s portrait subjects painted in Chicago early in 1863.^[118] Over three dozen works by the artist were exhibited at the Northwestern Fine Arts Fair, held “in aid of the Chicago Branch of the U.S. Sanitary Commission for the Relief of Soldiers,” in McVicker’s Theatre, beginning on October 27, 1863. Among the portraits of citizens of Illinois represented in the exhibition was a portrait of the Governor of Illinois, Richard Yates (1861-1864).^[119] Leonard Volk organized the Art Galleries for the Fair.^[120] Sometime between 1864 and 1865, Healy bought a house at 259 Wabash Avenue, and moved his studio from Lake Street to the Crosby Opera House.^[121]

President Abraham Lincoln—whose presidency spanned the Civil War—was assassinated on April 14, 1865. At some point after Lincoln’s death, Healy decided to paint his third, large historical portrait, called, The Peacemakers (life size, destroyed by fire, Calumet Club, Chicago, in 1892; 48” x 62” version, The White House, Washington, DC; 21” x 29” chomolithograph version, Chicago Historical Society^[122]). The painting shows General Sherman describing the Georgia campaign (related to the ending of the Civil War) to President Lincoln, General Grant, and Admiral Porter on board the River Queen, docked at City Point, March 28, 1865.^[123] One of the painting’s subjects, General Sherman, later wrote to Isaac Arnold, recalling that he had initially suggested the subject to Healy and also how the artist came to paint the portrait:

In Chicago about June or July of that year 1865 when all the facts were first in my mind I told them to Geo. P.A. Healy the artist who was casting about for a subject for an Historical Painting and he adopted this interview. Mr. Lincoln was then dead, but Healy had a portrait which he himself had made at Springfield some five or six years before….^[124]

Sherman replied in January of 1868 to a letter of Healy’s in which the artist apparently wrote of his ‘proposed picture,’ asking for details regarding the interview which had taken place in March of 1865.^[125] Although Healy made all the studies for the painting in the United States, he painted it in Rome.^[126]

In June of 1865, ten works by Healy were exhibited at the second Northwestern Fair, held “for the benefit of the U.S. Sanitary Commission and Soldiers’ Home,” in Chicago. Included were portraits of Archbishop John McCloskey (1810-1885) (Newberry Library, Chicago, IL), Governor Richard James Oglesby (1865-1869), of Illinois (Illinois State Historical Library, Old State Capitol, Springfield, IL) and Lieutenant Governor Bross, also of Illinois.^[127] Healy’s part in the Fair was a significant one. In addition to contributing portraits to the exhibition, he served as the Chairman of the Fair’s Fine Arts Committee.^[128]

At some point, the Healys decided to spend a few years abroad, in order for Healy to rest from his rigorous painting schedule in the United States.^[129] Louisa and the six younger children left Chicago in June of 1866.^[130] Healy and the eldest daughter, Agnes, followed a year later.

The Crosby Opera House in Chicago, which also housed an art center including artist’s studios and exhibition space, had opened in the spring of 1865,^[131] the week in which Lincoln was assassinated.^[132] Because the Opera House was not a financial success, the Crosby Opera House Art Association was formed, and arrangements were made sometime after June of 1866 for the Opera House and artwork to be sold by lottery.^[133] One work by Healy, Prayer, was listed in the lottery.^[134] Healy maintained a studio at Crosby’s Opera House in 1865^[135] and 1866.^[136]

That Healy had made a significant contribution to the artistic and social life in Chicago during his residence there in the 1850s and 1860s is evident in a farewell letter to the artist, and in a biographical essay about him, published in 1868. In the latter, published in, Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of Chicago, the author indicates appreciation for Healy when he writes:

“We need not add a word as to the great success which has uniformly attended Mr. Healy’s efforts to please his patrons in Chicago, as it has become proverbial that to engage a sitting with him is to secure a finished likeness. A more perfect gentleman, genial companion and affectionate parent need not be looked for, than he of whom we have written. A friend to the poor, always ready to lend a helping hand to those who are struggling for success, especially in the art circles of which he is the acknowledged head, he has won a place in the affections of hundreds of our citizens, which time cannot efface.”^[137]

Praise for Healy is also found in a farewell letter to him, written on June 15, 1867, and signed by eighteen prominent citizens of Chicago.^[138] Referring to the impact he made while in that city, the letter reads in part:

“As an artist, you came among us when Art was little known and appreciated. By your taste and varied culture; by the many examples of highest excellence for which we are indebted to your pencil; by your generous liberality towards your profession; and by your ever kind encouragement towards young Artists, you have created a School of Art in the North West, the influence of which, in refining and elevating the people will be permanent…. we look forward with the hope that at an early day we may welcome you home, as an honored and permanent fellow-citizen.”^[139]

One indication of the Healys’ intention to return is that they closed down, rather than sold, their house on Wabash Avenue.^[140] As evidence of Healy’s fondness for his Chicago “home” and his feelings that it was the one place where he had finally planted roots, the family moved back to Chicago at the sunset of his career in 1892, two years before Healy’s death.^[141]

Healy, his daughter, Agnes and her cousin, Emily Hanley joined Louisa and the other children in Paris^[142] at 35 Rue de Berlin, in July 1867.^[143] Bishop Duggan, of Chicago, visited the Healy family in Paris in the same month. ^[144] The family planned to spend the summer in St. Cloud, near Paris, and winter in Rome. In a letter to a friend, Mrs. Healy mentioned the family’s desire to return to Chicago after Rome.^[145] During the summer the Healy’s eldest daughter, Agnes, was married in St. Cloud to Tiburce de Mare, a childhood friend from Versailles. Among the wedding guests were friends from Chicago, including Mr. and Mrs. Hoyne, and Mrs. McGinness and children.^[146] Louisa wrote to a friend that after summer vacation, George Louis was to continue school in Paris, Maria and Emily were to go to the Sacred Heart School in Germany, and Mary, Edith and Kathleen were to accompany the family to Rome.^[147] Healy, in the company of his niece, Emily, was to go to the United States to settle business, including fulfilling portrait commissions, in preparation for living in Europe for a period of time.^[148]

Healy had been one of the founding members of the Chicago Academy of Design.^[149] The Academy was first organized in November of 1866, ^[150] and its constitution adopted and instituted in March of 1867.^[151] In November of that year, the Academy was reorganized,^[152] at which time Leonard Volk was elected President, and Healy became one of eight council members.^[153] He was reported in February of 1868 to have completed several portraits in Chicago, including one of Mrs. McCormick.^[154] At the exhibition held by the Academy in March of 1868 at the Crosby Opera House, Healy displayed nine paintings.^[155] In May of 1868, in his painting room in Chicago, the artist offered for sale ninety-four of his copies and studies made over the previous thirty years.^[156] In December, one painting by the artist was shown at the Chicago Academy of Design’s third annual exhibition, held at the Opera House.^[157]

The family lived in Rome from 1868 until 1873.^[158] The painter’s initial major project of this period was The Peacemakers, for which he had done the preliminary work in the United States. In February of 1869, he was reported to have set up his studio in Rome, and to have finished his masterwork.^[159] In April of 1869 it was on view in a small room in the Capitol in Washington.^[160] Interestingly, at the time, Ulysses S. Grant, one of the four men in the picture, had recently begun his term of office as the eighteenth United States President.

Healy received a commission from Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore in the spring of 1869, to paint a portrait of Pope Pius IX (Kenwood Convent of the Sacred Heart, Albany, NY).^[161] He began the portrait from memory,^[162] but the Pope later sat for the artist in February of 1871.^[163] For the portrait, he received a gold medal from the earthly head of the Catholic Church. The Pope also made the artist a Knight of Saint Gregory the Great.^[164]

Edith later recalled that the family traveled in Italy, Germany and Switzerland before returning to Rome in 1870, at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War.^[165] For his part, Healy collected sketches from artists of the French Academy in Rome and sent them to New York for sale, with the proceeds going towards “relief of the wounded” in France.^[166] In February of 1871 the “pensionnaires” of the Academy wrote the artist a letter of appreciation for his efforts on behalf of their compatriots.^[167]

In 1871, Healy finished The Arch of Titus (Newark Art Museum, Newark, NJ; study, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL), a collaborative painting, begun in 1869.^[168] Depicted in it are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his daughter, Edith on the left, underneath the Arch of Titus, with the Roman Colosseum in the background, and three artists, Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), Jervis McEntee (1828-1891) and Healy, on the right. Healy painted the figures of Longfellow and his daughter with the aid of photographs.

After visiting Naples with his daughter, Mary, Healy set up a studio on the island of Capri for July and August of 1871.^[169] He planned to go to Spain in September, and return to Rome, 54. Via Gregoriana, in October.^[170] On October 8, while he was in Madrid on a sketching trip, the Great Fire of 1871 ravaged Chicago. The family’s house there, on Wabash Street was consumed.^[171] Nearly all of the many portraits by Healy owned by his many patrons in Chicago were destroyed by the Great Conflagration, including his medal-winning historical portrait of Franklin before Louis XVI. Of his work represented in the Chicago Historical Society, only one portrait, the one of Miss Snead, was saved.^[172]

While in Rome, Healy was asked by the Duke of Weimar, to paint a portrait of the Princess Oldenburg (Newberry Library, Chicago, IL),^[173] which led to another commission to paint her cousin, the Princess of Romania (Castle Peles, Sinaia, Romania).^[174] During the summer of 1872, at the request of the royal family of Romania, Healy traveled to their summer retreat in the Carpathian Mountains in Sinaia, Romania to paint family portraits.^[175] While in Romania,^[176] Healy painted portraits of Prince Charles (Carol I) (Castle Peles, Sinaia, Romania; Illinois State Art Museum, Springfield, IL), and of the couple’s young daughter, Marie (Palace Museum, Bucharest, Romania).^[177] Once back in Rome, Healy made plans to send portraits of the royal family, and of Pope Pius IX, the pianist Franz Liszt (1811-1886) (Newberry Library, Chicago, IL), and Grant to the International Exhibition to be held in Vienna in the spring.^[178] During his sojourn in Rome, many visiting Americans, including Chicagoans, had their portraits painted by Healy.

The Healy family moved from Rome to Paris in 1873.^[179] Healy planned to go directly to Paris, while Louisa and the children first visited the south of France.^[180] One reason for the move was that the season was longer in Paris than in Rome. Another reason was to enable the family to be with their only son, George Louis who was to enter the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as a student of architecture in the fall of 1873.^[181] The family moved to an eighteenth century ‘hotel,’ with garden—formerly a residence of the French writer, Victor Hugo—at 66 rue de la Rochefoucauld, in the artist-inhabited, Montmartre section of Paris, where they lived until 1892. Healy also took a studio next door, at no. 64, previously occupied by the German portrait painter, Franz Xaver Winterhalter. A connecting door was cut between the two properties.^[182]

On February 14, 1874, Healy’s second eldest daughter, Mary, was married to Charles Bigot,^[183] a writer, journalist, critic and teacher, whom she had met in Rome. After their marriage, the couple lived on the top floor of the Healy home.^[184] In 1875 or so, Healy bought a home, “Lucknow Plantation,” ^[185] near Port Gibson, Mississippi, for his brother, Thomas and his wife, Charlotte Roberts.^[186]

Probably in recognition of his respected status as a portrait painter, a self-portrait by Healy, dated 1875, ^[187] was the first by an American to be added to the collection of the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence, Italy.^[188] Healy returned to Chicago in 1875, after an absence of several years. Two of his paintings were exhibited at the Chicago Academy of Design in the spring.^[189] In October, he was reported in a newspaper article to have taken “Mr. Drury”s studio on Huron Street,” where he would work during the winter. Praise in the article for the artist’s work included the following, “Healy’s best portraits are the best painted by any living American artist.”^[190] At the beginning of 1876, Healy left Chicago for Washington.^[191] He exhibited a number of paintings in the year of the American Centennial celebration. At the Chicago Interstate Industrial Exposition, over two dozen pictures by Healy were exhibited, including his series of presidential portraits.^[192]

In 1877 Healy painted portraits of the French statesman, Leon Gambetta (1838-1882) (Newberry Library, Chicago, IL), for Elihu Benjamin Washburne, U.S. Minisiter to France,^[193] of Lord Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons (1817-1887), the British diplomat (Newberry Library, Chicago, IL), and of Prince Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck (1815-1898) (Newberry Library, Chicago, IL). Bismarck sat for Healy in 1877, in Berlin in March, and in Kissingen in June.^[194]

In the spring of 1879, Healy’s presidential portrait series, owned by Thomas B. Bryan, was purchased by William W. Corcoran for the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington.^[195] The presidential series consisted of fourteen presidents, among whom was the ‘beardless Lincoln’, mentioned earlier.^[196] Not long after this time, Healy’s son, George Louis, graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In May, Healy painted the American singer, Emma Thursby (The New-York Historical Society, New York, NY),^[197] and in July the artist had his first sitting from Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps (1805-1894) (Newberry Library, Chicago, IL), of Panama Canal fame.^[198] The portrait—originally a double portrait of Lesseps and Mr. Appleton—includes a map of the Canal.^[199]

Healy spent the summer months of 1879 in Paris. In August, he journeyed with Kathleen to the United States to fulfill numerous commissions. Their itinerary in the United States, in August and September, included New England, Albany, and Niagara Falls. In Albany they visited Healy’s sister, Agnes, at the Kenwood Convent, and also went to see the murals by the late William Morris Hunt in the State Capitol.^[200] In September they arrived in Chicago, where they remained through the winter.

Healy had much work to do in Chicago, including retouching portraits he had painted previously, as well as painting new ones. He changed the number of stars on the uniforms of Grant and Sherman in The Peacemakers, in the collection of the Calumet Club,^[201] and painted a portrait of Governor Cullum.^[202] In November, Healy was glad of his son’s arrival in Chicago, together with his friend, Louis J. Millet (1856-1923),^[203] also a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Healy’s portrait of de Lesseps and Nathan Appleton was exhibited at the annual reception at the Chicago Academy of Design in December,^[204] and two portraits by him were exhibited at the Chicago Academy of Design in February of 1880.^[205]

In 1880, Healy’s son, and his son’s friend, Louis J. Millet opened a decorating business called, Healy & Millet, in Chicago.^[206] Over time they achieved a measure of success, with their work, represented in such Chicago buildings as Louis Sullivan’s Auditorium building,^[207] the Calumet Club and Union League Club, Central Music Hall, Grace Episcopal Church, and the residences of Potter Palmer.^[208]

The same year, Healy spent the months of February through April in Washington, and May in New York. He and Kathleen returned to Europe on the steamer, City of Chester, at the end of May.^[209] In August, Healy attended the birthday celebrations of the Prince de Neuwied—brother of Princess Elisabeth of Romania—in Wiesbaden, Germany.^[210] In September, he traveled back to the United States, to work there during the winter season.^[211] As in the previous year, he traveled through New England, and New York before arriving in Chicago. After visiting his sister, Agnes (Mrs. Dyson) at Kenwoood Convent, Albany, and attempting unsuccessfully to see President-elect James Garfield in Mentor, Illinois for a proposed portrait, Healy traveled to Chicago in December.^[212] He planned to spend some time there, but changed plans after receiving word that Prince Charles of Romania had requested two portraits.^[213]

Healy responded to the request by leaving for Europe in January of 1881. His second, and last trip to Romania consisted of a stay in Bucharest from February 15 through March, during which time he painted portraits of Prince Charles (Castle Peles, Sinaia, Romania; Newberry Library, Chicago, IL) and Princess Elisabeth (Palace Museum, Bucharest, Romania; Newberry Library, Chicago, IL).^[214] One portrait of Charles (Newberry Library, Chicago, IL) was rapidly completed, in time to be exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1881.^[215] While the artist was in Bucharest, he witnessed the signing of the papers making Charles and Elisabeth King and Queen of Romania.^[216]

In May of 1881, the artist returned to the United States to work on portraits, including one of General Sherman which was finished by the end of the month.^[217] His daughter, Emily, arrived in New York in September to go to the convent on 17^th Street.^[218] In December, his son, George Louis visited New York on business from Chicago.^[219] A portrait by Healy of the late Ogden (Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, IL)—after one painted by the artist ten years earlier—was presented on December 20, 1881 to the Chicago Historical Society.^[220] In January of 1882, the Historical Society’s President, Isaac N. Arnold, commissioned Healy to paint a portrait, of Robert Cavelier La Salle (Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, IL), after an engraving.^[221] Marshall Field presented the finished portrait to the Chicago Historical Society sometime before April 24 of 1882.^[222]

Healy worked in New York January through March, and in Chicago in April and May of 1882. After having been away from his family for a year, he returned home at the end of May.^[223] His son joined the family in Paris from July until September.^[224] Louisa, and the two daughters, Kathleen and Edith, accompanied Healy on a working vacation to Germany in September and October. While the Healy family stayed as guests at the home of Dr. Meurer in Wiesbaden, Healy painted portraits of the host’s family.^[225]

The Healy family spent a year in the United States beginning in 1883. George departed first, in May,^[226] for Chicago via New York. In Chicago he arranged for a studio and exhibition space with artist John H. Drury, and met the family of his son’s fiancé.^[227] He visited with his daughter, Emily, who was living at the Convent.^[228] In early August, he attended the wedding of his son, George Louis.^[229] That month, Healy traveled to New York in order to meet his wife and daughters upon their arrival from France. His son and new daughter-in-law also traveled to New York to join the family.^[230] After visiting together, George Louis and his new wife returned to Chicago, while George, Louisa, Edith and Kathleen traveled on to Newport where they stayed with the McCaggs and visited with the Belmonts, the Whitehouses and other friends.^[231]

In September Healy returned to Chicago. While there he again visited Emily, and finished his portrait of Elihu Benjamin Washburne (1816-1887), U.S. Minister to France, 1869-1877, destined for Washington.^[232] Louisa and the girls arrived in Chicago at the end of October.^[233] The artist retouched the portraits of Lincoln and Grant in his painting, The Peacemakers, at the Calumet Club, on December 24, 1883. A few days later he and his family traveled to New York.^[234]

In April of 1884, in Washington, Healy painted President Chester Arthur’s portrait for William W. Corcoran. (Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC ; Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL; Newberry Library, Chicago, IL).^[235] On June 4, the family departed via steamer from New York to Liverpool, England. They spent the later part of June in Scotland, Birmingham—where they visited with their daughter, Marie, at a Convent there—and in London. They returned to Paris at the end of the month, after an absence of about a year.^[236]

The family was honored when books by both their daughter, Mary, and her husband, Charles Bigot, were crowned by the French Academy in 1884.^[237] Mary’s book, published under her pen name, Jeanne Mairet, was entitled Marca.^[238] Charles’ book was entitled Petit Français.^[239] Also in 1884, Raphael et La Farnesine, a collaborative book by Healy’s two sons-in-law, was published.^[240] Charles Bigot wrote the text and Tiburce de Mare provided the engravings. The book was dedicated to George Healy.^[241] Mary wrote the English translation for the book, which was published as, Raphael and the Villa Farnesina.^[242]

At the end of December 1884, Healy left Paris for a four-month long working trip to the United States. In the States, his itinerary included New England in January and February, Chicago in February, and New York from February through April. Following the pattern of travel established early in his life, Healy incorporated visits with family members—including his sister, Agnes, in Albany, his daughter, Emily and his son, George-Louis and wife, Laura, in Chicago—with travel to fulfill portrait commissions. He returned to Paris in May. In July the artist was asked to serve as president of a committee of American artists in France for an exhibition of American products to be held in London. For a period of about a month, from July to August 1885, the family rented a house in ‘Mers près Eu’. Apparently due to financial necessity, however, Healy remained, for the most part, working in Paris while the rest of the family vacationed by the sea. In September, a friend from Chicago, Ezra McCagg and his sister, visited the Healys in Paris. The family took a short trip to the Low Countries at the end of September, including a visit to the Universal Exhibition.^[243] In 1885, Healy’s daughter, Edith authored a book called Painters of the Italian Renaissance containing engravings by Tiburce de Mare.^[244]

Healy did not visit the United States in 1886 or 1887. On February 19, 1886, he painted a self-portrait (Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY)^[245] for the American painter, Eastman Johnson (1824-1906), as part of an arrangement in which the two artists agreed to exchange self-portraits.^[246] In 1886, the family took two trips: one to England in June and July, and one, by only George, Louisa, and their friend, Ezra McCagg, to the South of France, in August.^[247] During the trip to England, the Healy family went on a day outing on the Thames River with the Edwin Sheldon and Whitehouse families and Louis McCagg.^[248] During the excursion, Healy made sketches which he later used, together with photographs of the party, to paint the group portrait, The Boating Party on the Thames. In October, Charles and Mary Bigot left for New York to attend the inauguration ceremony of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty, as press representatives.^[249] In the same month, Healy decided that George de Mare, one of his grandsons who showed artistic talent, should enter the Julien Académie for further training.^[250]

Having now exceeded the age of seventy, Healy made arrangements through his friend from Chicago, Ezra B. McCagg, for some of his paintings to be placed in Illinois institutions. Two recipients of his benevolence were the Newberry Library, in Chicago and the State Hospital at Kankakee, Illinois. Healy corresponded with members of the Board of Trustees of the Newberry Library, beginning in 1886, about his plans to give a number of portraits to the as yet unbuilt Library. Healy initially proposed a contribution of about twenty portraits, in a letter written to McCagg, who was a member of the board.^[251] While identifying himself as a Chicagoan, Healy explained the reason for his gift:

“…because I have great pride in the City of Chicago and its prosperity, and affection for its people, and in further consideration of One Dollar to me in hand paid by said Trustees, I George P.A. Healy, of said City of Chicago, but now temporarily emphasis added a resident of Paris, France, do give and sell to said Trustees for the use of and as the property of the Trustees of the Newberry Library Fund… the following portraits painted by myself.…”^[252]

Healy withdrew some portraits from the original list, and added others.^[253] Of those added at a later time, three were painted specifically for the Newberry Library, including a portrait of the Newberry Library’s first Librarian, William F. Poole (Newberry Library),^[254] and one each of Jules Simon (Newberry Library), and Whitelaw Ried (Newberry Library), the United States Minister to France.^[255] In 1887, thirty-two painting by Healy were presented to the Newberry Library.^[256]

In March of 1887, Healy finished portraits of Ferdinand Barbedienne (Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL) who owned and operated a bronze foundry and of Lincoln, the latter commissioned by E.B. Washburne. In May, Healy traveled to London to help set up artwork for the American exhibition.^[257] In July, the Healy family vacationed in Interlaken, Switzerland.^[258] During the vacation, as at other times, Healy continued his usual practice of sketching and painting. Beginning in November of 1887 several paintings by Healy, in the E.B. Washburne Collection were exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago.^[259]

Healy painted a portrait of the English poet and statesman, Lord Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton (1831-1891) (Newberry Library, Chicago, IL), in March of 1888.^[260] In April and May, the Healy family, including George, Louisa, Edith and Kathleen, visited Spain.^[261] Another trip taken by Healy in 1888, in the company of his old friend, Ezra McCagg, was to Alaska, from mid-June to mid-September. As was his custom throughout his life, Healy continued to attend Mass weekly whenever possible, including on board ship.^[262] En route to Alaska, he paid visits to his sister, Agnes, in Albany, his son in Chicago, and his daughter, Emily, who was visiting there. On the return trip from Alaska, he stopped in Omaha, Nebraska to visit Emily, who had returned to her convent there. ^[263] Before returning to France in September, Healy finished a portrait of Cardinal Gibbons, in Baltimore, and had a sitting from Mrs. Palmer in New York.^[264]

Healy forwent travel to the United States in 1889 and 1890. During the summers of each of these two years, his family vacationed near the water, in the north of France. In 1889 they stayed in Veules—where the artist made several ‘open-air’ sketches, including, Pear Tree at Veules (Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL), and Le Cure de Veules (Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL). And, in 1890, they stayed at, ‘Pennedepie,’ an hour from Honfleur, where he also sketched.^[265] Several portraits by the artist were exhibited in Paris in 1889, including six at the Universal International Exhibition,^[266] and three at the annual Salon.^[267] In 1890, Healy showed his work at the Paris Salon for the last time. The two paintings, of Jules Simon and of Whitelaw Reid,^[268] were destined for inclusion in Healy’s gift of portraits to the Newberry Library. Another portrait by Healy, of John Crerar (1827-1889), patron of the library bearing his name in Chicago (now merged into the Chicago Public Library), was exhibited in that city at the beginning of 1891.^[269] During this sojourn he thought to contribute to the young students seeking to come abroad to study. With this in mind, Healy contributed a series of articles as to student life, places to study, eat, stay, and the like. For those eager to come to Paris, these correspondent letters must have been eagerly read.^[270]

While the artist was in Chicago in May and June of 1891, he painted portraits of Dr. Poole, and ‘the late President Cummings of Evanston’.^[271]

Besides his gift to the Newberry Library, mentioned earlier, Healy arranged, through Ezra McCagg, for another donation of his artwork, to the Illinois State Hospital, at Kankakee.^[272] In 1892, seventy-one of Healy’s paintings, and additional “sketches, back-grounds, etc.” were given to the Hospital.^[273] Included among the original gift were a portrait of, Mrs. Harrison Grey Otis, and, Boating Party on the Thames. ^[274] The Board’s appreciation for Healy’s largesse is recorded in the minutes of its meeting held on February 9, 1892:

“These beautiful pictures will be a light and joy forever to the many patients who shall come here to be restored and will often aid in that restoration, and for the hapless ones who must permanently remain they will serve to relieve many a gloomy hour and furnish a companionship the noblest and most comforting. We are sure it must be a satisfaction to the artist to have his memory perpetuated by joining hands with the State in a work so worthy and to add his world-wide fame as a painter the even higher glory of a lover of his kind.”^[275]

In January of 1892, George Healy decided the family should re-settle in Chicago the following month.^[276] Plans were made for George, Louisa, and Kathleen to leave for the United States on February 20.^[277] Edith stayed behind to pack and close the house in Paris,^[278] which still had a lease.^[279] One reason given for Healy’s return was his wish to be near his son, George Louis,^[280] who had settled in Chicago in 1880, and was still in business in partnership with Millet.^[281] Another reason was his desire “to die in his own country.”^[282] In Chicago, Healy bought a house at 387 Ontario Street,^[283] and took a studio at 268 Huron Street.^[284] Members of Chicago’s Cosmopolitan Club voted Healy an honorary membership by March of 1892. He accepted the membership, and was reported to have said that he was “pleased to assist in any way in his power the progress of art in Chicago.”^[285] In May, he was one of three judges, including C. Kurtz and S.H. Meakin, at the fourth annual exhibition of the Chicago Society of Artists, whose task was to award two Charles Tyson Yerkes prizes.^[286] Unfortunately, in the same year, one of Healy’s versions of the painting, The Peacemakers, was destroyed in the fire at the Calumet Club.^[287]

The event of the year in Chicago, in 1893, was the World’s Columbian Exposition. One portrait by Healy was exhibited at the Fair, that of Adolf Thiers (Newberry Library, Chicago, IL).^[288] Healy signed his will on February 7, 1893.^[289] Sometime during the year the artist fell and injured his head.^[290] He painted little during the last three months of his life.^[291] On June 24, 1894, at 2:30 a.m., he died at home, of “exhaustion, brought on by the hot weather.”^[292] At the time, his wife, eldest and youngest daughters (Agnes and Kathleen), and a grandson were all nearby.^[293]

The seven children surviving Healy included George Louis, two daughters, Agnes and Mary, each married and living in Paris, two daughters who were nuns, Marie, at a convent in England, and Emily, superior of a convent in Michigan, and two daughters living at home, Edith and Kathleen.^[294] Edith was in Europe with her sister, Mary (whose husband, Charles Bigot had died the previous year)^[295] when word arrived of Healy’s illness and “peaceful death.”^[296] Edith returned home to Elmhurst, where the family was spending the summer. She cared for her mother for the next ten years.^[297] Published notice of Healy’s death included praise for Healy as both artist and man, as indicated in the following excerpt from the Chicago Herald:

“George P.A. Healy, recognized in two continents as one of the greatest portrait painters of the century, died yesterday morning at his home in this city, 387 Ontario Street. Into his long life of 81 years were crowded vicissitudes which, one with another, only tended to make him the ideal man and the great artist that his friends thought him. Mr. Healy had long been known and honored in social, religious and artistic circles in Chicago.”^[298]

A loan exhibition held at the Art Institute of Chicago at the end of the year included a room devoted to works by the artist.^[299] One portrait was of George Armour, the Institute’s first president.^[300]

Beginning in 1900, George Louis lived with his mother and sister, Edith, on Ontario Street.^[301] Edith married Judge Hill in 1904.^[302] The couple lived with Louisa until her death of pneumonia on February 7, 1905.^[303] Louisa’s funeral was held at Holy Name Cathedral.^[304] She was buried near her husband in Calvary Cemetery.

^[1]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.173.

^[2]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.173.

^[3]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.173.

^[4]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.174. De Mare includes a quotation from the Baltimore Sun, 11/03/1852, which mentions that Agnes was of “Misses Kilbourn and Healy’s Academy,” in Baltimore. Dr. Dyson died in 1860, according to de Mare.; Letter, Healy to Jared Sparks, 10/28/1852, Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Special Collections, New York Public Library, mentions Healy’s attendance with Louisa at wedding of his sister to Dr. Dyson on October 28. Agnes became a nun at some point after her husband’s death.

^[5]See, op. cit., Healy’s Sitters, 1950, p.59. The portrait of Pierce is signed and dated, “G.P.A. Healy./ Novr. 1852.”

^[6]Op. cit., Yarnall and Gerdts, The National Museum of American Art’s Index…, 1986, vol. 1, p.14; vol. 3, pp.1674, 1675, nos. 42307 (Webster), 42310 (Pierce), 42331 (Lady), 42332 (Lady).

^[7]Op. cit., Yarnall and Gerdts, The National Museum of American Art’s Index…, 1986, vol. 1, p.17; vol. 3, pp.1670, 1673, nos. 42187 (Louis Philippe), 42188 (Guizot), 42189 (Soult), 42192 (Washington, copy from Stuart), 42261 (Lady), 42275 (Cass), 42300 (Charles 2^nd, att. to Healy). The first four were owned by Gen. Cass, the next two by H. Ledyard, and the last by T.H. Hinchman.

^[8]Letter, Healy to Franklin Haven, from Providence, 03/19/1853, typescript, Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Special Collections, New York Public Library, “We leave this city next Wednesday for Washington & New York on the 9^th of May to join our children at Versailles.”

^[9]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.174.

^[10]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.174. She became a nun at age eighteen.

^[11]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.174.

^[12]The double portrait of Agnes and Mary is signed “G.P.A. Healy 1855.”

^[13]Exposition universelle de 1855. Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, gravure, lithographie et architecture des artistes vivants étrangers et français, exposés au Palais des beaux-arts, avenue Montaigne, le 15 mai 1855, (Paris: Vinchon, 1855), p.82, catalog nos. 705 (Franklin plaidant…), 706 (Mme la baronne de P. et de sa fille), 707 (une dame américaine), 708 (une demoiselle anglaise), 709 (S.E. Franklin Pierce, président des Etats-Unis), 710 (Soult), 711 (Daniel Webster), 712 (Charles Goodyear; peint sur caoutchouc), 713 (S.E. le ministre des Etats-Unis à Paris), 714 (Juge Piatt), 715 (M. le docteur Evans), 716 (M. Thomas Rossiter, peintre à New York), 717 (M.V…), 718 (M…); op. cit., Fink, American Art…, 1990, p.354, lists six additional entries in a 4^th catalog supplement, catalog nos. 2362 (Mme L…de NY), 2363 (Jackson), 2364 (enfants de l’artiste), 2365 (femme de l’artiste), 2366 (Portrait de M.D. et de l’artiste), 2367 (famille de M. Charles Goodyear, tableau peint sur caoutchouc). Healy did not again exhibit at the Salon until 1869.

^[14]William H. Gerdts, Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920: The South and the Midwest, (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990), p.285.

^[15]Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, gravure, lithographie et architecture des artistes vivants exposés au Palais des Champs-Elysées le 15 juin 1857, (Paris: Charles de Mourgues Freres, 1857), p. xliii-xliv, “Médailles de 2e classe…705, Hehaly (sic), (Georges-P.-A.), Etats-Unis.”

^[16]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.53. Healy mentions that the second class, “gold” medal was the highest award given to an American artist at the time.

^[17]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.175, does not mention the date of Healy’s first encounter with Ogden.; In op. cit., Healy’s Sitters, 1950, p.50, it indicates that William Ogden was in Paris to see the ‘International Exhibition’ in 1855; Letter, Healy to Isaac N. Arnold, 10/31/1881, transcribed in, Isaac N. Arnold, William B. Ogden; and Early Days in Chicago: a Paper Read Before the Chicago Historical Society, Tuesday, December 20, 1881 (On the Presentation by Mrs. Ogden of a Portrait of her Late Husband, Painted by Geo. P.A. Healy), (Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1881), p.24-25, “In the summer of 1855, Dr. Brainard presented me to Mr. Ogden, who also sat to me.”

^[18]Op. cit., Healy, 1894, p.124; op. cit., Letter, Healy to Arnold, 10/31/1881.

^[19]Mme Charles Bigot, “Forgotten Chicago,” in, Caroline Kirkland, ed., Chicago Yesterdays: a Sheaf of Reminiscences, (Chicago: Daughaday and Co., 1919), cp.9, p.144; op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.60; op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.179.

^[20]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.62.

^[21]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Arnold, 10/31/1881.

^[22]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Arnold, 10/31/1881.

^[23]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.63; op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.176.

^[24]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.62. Healy expressed regret at not having kept an account of portraits painted during his first year in Chicago.

^[25] “Leonard W. Volk,” in, Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of Chicago, (Chicago: Wilson & St. Clair, 1868), p.338. In September of 1855, Volk traveled to Italy, where he stayed for two years, returning to Chicago in 1857.

^[26]Op. cit., “Leonard W. Volk,” in, Biographical Sketches…, 1868, p.335.

^[27]Op. cit., Bigot, “Forgotten Chicago,” in Chicago Yesterdays…, 1919, p.143.

^[28]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.181; op. cit., Healy Diaries, 12/30/1879, George turned 24 on December 29,  “Hier … mon fils prenait ses 24 ans.”

^[29]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.124. Healy writes that his family joined him a year after his own arrival in Chicago; op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.181; op. cit., Healy’s Sitters, 1950, p.50.

^[30]See, op. cit. Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, pp.67, 70-71; op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, pp.181, 210, 222, 284; op. cit., Bigot, “Forgotten Chicago,” in Chicago Yesterdays…, 1919, p.145. The George P. A. Healy residences in, and around Chicago appear to have included the following: 1) the Ogden house, 1855-c.1856; 2) a “tall frame house” on Ontario Street, c.1856-1857; 3) “Clover Lawn,” in Hill Cottage (Elmhurst), 1857-1863; 4) 247 Illinois Street, c. 1863, 1865) 259 Wabash Avenue, c.1864, and 1866) 387 Ontario Street, 1892-1893.

^[31]Chicago City Directory Supplement and Calendar for 1857, (Chicago: Printed by Robert Fergus, 1856), p.7, “Healy, Geo. P. A. artist, Exchange Bank bdgs.”

^[32]List, “Paintings by George P.A. Healy in the Chicago Historical Society Collections,” (n.d.), Chicago Historical Society, Chicago. Of the 82 pictures on the list, about half date from the 1850s and 1860s. All entered the collection after the Chicago Fire of 1871. The family names represented on the list, include the following (with, when more than one, the number of portraits bearing the family name in parentheses): Adams, Arnold, Barry, Blair (9), Bowen, Burling, Burton (2), Carmichael, Chase (2), Collins, Culver, DeKoven, Doggett, Dunham, Farwell, Fowler (2), Grant (2), Griggs (2), Gurnee, Healy, Holmes, Hoyne, Hubbard, Johnston, Kelley (2), King, Kinzie, LaSalle, Lincoln, Logan, McCagg (2), McCormick (2), Mulligan, Newberry, Ogden (3), Parmelee (2), the Peace Makers (3), Ryerson (4), Sawyer (2), Scammon, Sherman, Shuman, Smith (2), Sneyde, Stickney, Sturges, Taylor (2), Thompson, Tree, Washburne, Wentworth (2), Wheeler, Whitehead (2).

^[33]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.63.

^[34]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.65.

^[35]Op. cit., Bigot, “Forgotten Chicago,” in Chicago Yesterdays…, 1919, p.146.

^[36]Op. cit., Bigot, “Forgotten Chicago,” in Chicago Yesterdays…, 1919, p.148.

^[37]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.67.

^[38]Letter to Thos. B. Bryan from S.A. Douglas, 07/11/1857, Donnelly-S.Douglas Collection, Chicago Historical Society. Douglas wrote that he enclosed a deed for a lot for Healy.; Helmut Alan Berens, Elmhurst: Prairie to Tree Town, (Published by Elmhurst Historical Commission, 1968), p.66, 80-81. Bryan had bought around 1,000 acres there the previous year.

^[39]Op. cit., Berens, Elmhurst: Prairie to Tree Town, 1968, p.81.

^[40]Op. cit., Berens, Elmhurst: Prairie to Tree Town, 1968, p.37-38.

^[41]Op. cit., Berens, Elmhurst: Prairie to Tree Town, 1968, p.38; op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.210, Mrs. Phipps also lived with the family. The youngest daughter, Kathleen, was born in 1858.

^[42]Letter, Thomas Barbour Bryan, to “Beloved Parents,” 07/14/1859, Chicago Historical Society. Bryan wrote, “last night four of the Healy household were with us, howling & playing billiards.”

^[43]The group portrait of the Bryan family is signed and dated, “G.P.A. Healy. 1857.” See, op. cit., Healy’s Sitters, 1950, p.82-83.

^[44]The portrait of Mrs. Bryan is signed, “G.P.A. Healy/1856.” See, Descriptive Catalogue of Painting and Sculpture in the National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1983), p.88.

^[45]Op. cit., Bigot, “Forgotten Chicago,” in Chicago Yesterdays…, 1919, p.151.

^[46]Op. cit., Bigot, “Forgotten Chicago,” in Chicago Yesterdays…, 1919, p.153; The school is identified as the “Academy of the Visitation, Wheeling, Virginia,” in a letter from Healy to Pres. James Buchanan, 06/02/1859, Buchanan Papers, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll P20, frame 624. Wheeling is now in West Virginia, which became a state in 1863.

^[47]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.70.

^[48]Letter, Healy to James A. Pearce, Washington, 01/14/1858, Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Special Collections, New York Public Library. In this letter Healy refers to an Act approved March 3, 1857, and ending on June 30, 1858, in reference to Healy’s providing presidential portraits for the White House. In Healy’s letter, he quotes a clause in the Act, “To enable the committee on the Library to contract with Mr. Healy for a series of portraits of the Presidents of the United States for the Executive Mansion; Provided, the cost of the same, shall not exceed one thousand dollars for each of the full length portraits: five thousand dollars, are hereby appropriated, or in the discretion of the committee to purchase such of Stuart’s portraits of the Presidents, as shall be for sale.” It appears that the Act’s clause was somewhat open-ended regarding Healy’s commission. At the time that Healy wrote the letter, i.e. January 1858, he had a verbal contract, but was still waiting for a written contract for the portraits, for he adds in this letter, “In anticipation of a formal contract, and in pursuance of your verbal instructions, I have the honor to inform you that I have made the study, and completed the full length portrait of Ex-President Fillmore, which is now in the Rotunda of the Capitol and which is subject to the order of the Committee.”

^[49]The portrait of Pres. Fillmore in the White House Collection is signed and dated on the front, “G.P.A. Healy, pinx/1857,” and on back, “President Fillmore, Aged 57/painted by G.P. A. Healy/February 16, 1857,” according to, op. cit., A Nation’s Pride, 1992, p.317. That of Fillmore in the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art is signed and dated, “G.P.A. Healy, Dec. 2^nd, 1857,” according to, A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in The Corcoran Gallery of Art, (Washington, D.C.: The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1966), p.91.

^[50]This portrait of Van Buren is signed and dated, “G.P.A. Healy/Phil. April 15^th/1857” according to, op. cit., A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1966, p.89.

^[51]Op. cit., National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1826-1860, 1943, p.220. One work by Healy was exhibited at the National Academy of Design, New York, in 1857, catalog no. 480 (Lady).

^[52]Op. cit., Yarnall and Gerdts, The National Museum of American Art’s Index…, 1986, vol. 1, p. 6; vol. 3, p.1676, nos. 42340 (Johnson), 42341 (Gales), 42349 (Crittenden), 42361 (Washington i.e. Franklin at the Court of Louis XIV (Sketch)).

^[53]Letter, Healy to Johnson, Chicago, 08/02/1857, Graham Collection of Autograph Letters, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll D294, frame 728.

^[54]Op. cit., Reynolds, To Live Upon Canvas…, 1980, p.10; See also, op. cit., Glasgow and Johnson, G.P.A. Healy: Famous Figures and Louisiana Patrons, 1976, p.27, which indicates that Healy was in New Orleans in January of 1857, and in each of the following four years.

^[55]D.B. Cooke & Co’s Directory of Chicago, for the Year 1858, (Chicago: Cooke, 1858) p.329.

^[56]Letter, Healy to James Buchanan, from Providence, 11/25/1858, Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll P20, frame 623. It was not until June of the following year that Healy was finally able to arrange for a session with Buchanan.

^[57]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to James A. Pearce, from Washington, 01/14/1858.

^[58]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to James A. Pearce, Washington, 01/14/1858. “I have the honor to inform you, that I am prepared … to make the contract thus authorized for the series of the Presidents of the United States…”

^[59]Letter, Healy to Rigg--olo, from New York, 04/04/1858, Chicago Historical Society, Chicago.

^[60]See, op. cit., A Nation’s Pride, 1992, p.318. Van Buren’s portrait is signed on front, “G.P.A. Healy./1864.” On back it is signed and dated, “President Van Buren Age 75 years/painted at Lindenwald, April 12, 1858/by George P. A. Healy.” When Healy retouched portraits, he often added the most recent date to the painting.

^[61]See, op. cit., A Nation’s Pride, 1992, p.318. Healy’s portrait of Pierce is signed and dated on front, “G.P.A. Healy, Pinxt./Chicago 1858,” and on back, “Ex President/Franklin Pierce./Painted in Chicago/May 15, 1858/by/Geo. P.A. Healy.” Aware of the historical significance of his portraits of heads of state, Healy regularly signed and dated such portraits.

^[62]See, op. cit., A Nation’s Pride, 1992, p.317. Healy’s portrait of Adams in the White House collection is signed and dated on front, “G.P.A. Healy 1864” and, on back, “July 21, 1858.” His portrait of Adams in the Corcoran Gallery of Art is signed and dated “G.P.A. Healy, 1858.”

^[63]Boston Transcript, “Art Matters,” 08/03/1858. According to the article, the two portraits were “the third and fourth of the series of full length portraits of the Presidents that he is executing for the government,” destined for the White House.

^[64]See, op. cit., A Nation’s Pride, 1992, p.318. The painting of Polk is signed and dated on back, “painted by G.P.A. Healy/October 7, 1858 at Chicago.”

^[65]The portrait of Mrs. Douglas is signed and dated, “G.P.A. Healy/1857/Chicago,” according to, op. cit., Healy’s Sitters, 1950, p.81.

^[66]Painting in the South: 1564-1980, (Richmond, Va.: Virginia Museum, 1983), p.237. Healy’s portrait of

 Stephens is signed, “G.P.A. Healy, 1858.”

^[67]Franklin Kelly…et al., American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I, (Washington, D.C.:

 National Gallery of Art, 1996), p.300. Wentworth was Mayor of Chicago from 1857-1860. Healy later painted Wentworth’s daughter, Roxana Atwater Wentworth (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) in 1876, and painted John Wentworth again in 1879 (Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH).

^[68]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.182; “Biographical notes about members of the Healy family,” Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll D130, frame 513.

^[69]Edith Healy Hill, Recollections, (Hinsdale, 1930), page 1 of Chapter 2.

^[70]Op. cit., Hill, Recollections, 1930, page 3 of Chapter 2.

^[71]Partial transcriptions of letters, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 05/14/1859, 06/05/1859, 10/01/1859, 10/05/1859, Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Special Collections, New York Public Library. Unless otherwise indicated, all future references to correspondence between Healy and Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, dated 1859-1863, 1877, are to the partial transcriptions of letters, in the Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Special Collections, New York Public Library. Healy was a friend and admirer of Mrs. Goddard-Dalhgren, a dedicated Catholic who lived in Washington. She was apparently influential in the Healy family’s growth in the Catholic faith. She wrote and translated, and was the daughter of Congressman Sanuel F. Vinton, of Ohio, wife of Mr. Goddard, and later, of Admiral Dahlgren. Her daughter, Romane attended the Convent school in Wheeling, Virginia, as did Healy’s daughters. See also,Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, pp.186, 224.

^[72]See, Healy’s Sitters, 1950, p.62. Healy signed and dated this portrait of the former president, now in the National Portrait Gallery (transferred from The National Collection of Fine Arts, now called the National Museum of American Art), “Portrait of Tyler/painted by Healy/Sherwood Forest/February 25, 1859.” See, op. cit., A Nation’s Pride, 1992, p.318. The portrait of Tyler in the White House collection, dated 1859, is signed on the front, “G.P.A. Healy, 1864.”

^[73]Op. cit., National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1826-1860, 1943, vol. I, p.220, catalog nos. 185 (Ex-President Tyler (Ordered by Congress)), 303 (Brother Artist, Painted for a Gallery at Chicago), 588 (Lady).

^[74]Op. cit., “Leonard W. Volk,” in, Biographical Sketches…, 1868, p.339.

^[75]Op. cit., “Leonard W. Volk,” in, Biographical Sketches…, 1868, p.339.

^[76]Chicago Exhibition of the Fine Arts, Catalogue of the First Exhibition of Statuary, Paintings, etc., opened May 9^th, in Burch’s Building, Cor. Wabash Avenue and Lake St., 1859, (Chicago: Press & Tribune Print, 1859). Portraits by Healy included the following, all owned by Healy, except for four, as indicated: catalog nos. 34 (Daniel Webster), 39 (Souvenir of Marshfield), 44 (Louis Philippe), 47 (J. Q. Adams), 56 (Portrait (full lenghth) Citizen; owned by E.H. Sheldon), 62 (Henry Clay), 78 (Portrait (full-length) Citizen; owned by I.H. Burch), 84 (W. H. Prescott), 95 (Chief Justice Taney), 110 (Gen. Jackson), 125 (New York Belle), 133 (Family Group, full length; owned by I.H. Burch), 158 (Thomas Sully), 168 (English Belle), 205 (Marshal Soult), 219 (Calhoun), 240 (H. G. Otis), 247 (Child; owned by I.N. Arnold).

^[77]Information courtesy of the Illinois Historical Art Project. See the section on Art Organizations in this book.

^[78]This portrait of Buchanan in the National Portrait Gallery (transferred from the National Gallery of Art) is signed and dated, “James Buchanan, President of the United States/Painted in the Presidential Mansion/by G.P.A. Healy, June 22, 1859,” according to, op. cit., Healy’s Sitters, 1850, p.65.

^[79]Presentation of the Portrait of President James Buchanan by George P.A. Healy: The Gift of Mrs. Merle W. Allen: Dickenson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, (Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickenson College, 1953). The full-length painting of James Buchanan is signed, “G.P.A. Healy, Chicago, Sept. 1859.” Inscribed on back is, “His Excellency, the President of the United States, James Buchanan, painted in Chicago, Ill., September, 1859, from studies made the June previous; completed at the Presidential Mansion by G.P.A. Healy, September 24, 1859.” The portrait of Buchanan in the Corcoran Gallery of Art is inscribed on back, “His Excellency the President of the United States, painted at the Presidential Mansion for T.B. Bryan, Esq., by G.P.A. Healy, Sept. 28, 1859,” according to, op. cit., A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1966, p.92.

^[80]Letter, Healy to Hiram Powers, 09/12/1859, Hiram Powers Papers, National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., Archives of American Art, microfilm roll 1140, frame 327. It appears that Healy was under the impression that Gilbert Stuart’s portraits of the first five presidents would constitute the first part of the series, and his own ten portraits—from J.Q. Adams to the current, fifteenth president, President Buchanan—would constitute the second portion of the series desired by the U.S. Government for placement in the Executive Mansion. Ultimately, the U.S. Government purchased for The White House seven presidential paintings by Healy: six full or three quarter length portraits, of Presidents John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, and James Knox Polk, and at a later date, one group portrait, The Peacemakers. See, A Nation’s Pride: Art in the White House, by William Kloss …et al. (Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 1992), pp.29, 317-318.

^[81]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Hiram Powers, 09/12/1859.

^[82]Letter, Healy to Pres. Buchanan, from Cottage Hill, 12/12/1859, Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll P20, frame 626.

^[83]Partial transcription of letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, from New Orleans, 01/10/1860, Healy-DeMare Papers, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll D130, frame 015. As Healy described the proposed arrangement, “Mr. T. B. Bryan offered me eighty acres; 4 miles north of the Chicago River, where it runs through the city, half a mile from the lake; at $400.00 per acre, he proposed to take my Cottage Hill property at $10,000.00, thirty of those heads from the life, including Jackson, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, etc…with the original study of Webster’s reply to Hayne on a canvas 8 by 5 feet, together with the picture now in the Rotunda, of Franklin near Louis XVI for $10,000.00. This leaves me $12,000.00 to pay in cash, to pay which he gives me three years, and during those three years I am to occupy Cottage Hill free of rent…” This property may, or may not be the same as that referred to later in an article, “Price for a Painting,” dated May 22, 195-, in an unidentified newspaper, a copy of which is in the Archives of American Art, microfilm roll D130, frame 575, which indicates in regard to Healy property that, “The tract of land extended north from the old water tower at Chicago Av. to what is now Oak St. beach. Its boundary to the west was State St. and to the east was the water’s edge.” According to the paper, the area was called “Streeterville,” after Streeter, who contested ownership of the property. The case was brought to the Supreme Court, and Healy won right to his property. The property remained in the family until “recent years.” In op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, pp. 64-65, Healy identifies his friend, E. B.. McCagg as the lawyer who worked on behalf of Healy’s property rights claims.

^[84]Bryan Hall, Clark Street, Opposite the Court House, Chicago, Illinois…Thos. Barbour Bryan (1860), in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society, Chicago.

^[85]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 11/25/1862, indicates that Healy sold Cottage Hill in 1862. Healy writes, “I have sold my place in the country for $4,000 that cost me $13,000. Yet I rejoice that it is off my hands.”

^[86]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 01/10/1860.

^[87]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 01/30/1860.

^[88]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 03/24/1860.

^[89]Op. cit., Glasgow and Johnson, G.P.A. Healy: Famous Figures and Louisiana Patrons, 1976, p.26. Healy’s fees in 1860 ranged from $200 for a ‘gentleman’s’ head measuring 22 by 27 inches, to $1,000 for a “grand size” portrait, measuring 47 by 62 inches; op. cit., Letters, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 05/03/1860, 05/19/1860, 07/05/1860.

^[90]Op. cit., Letters, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 09/08/1860, 10/03/1860, 10/21/1860, 12/19/1860.

^[91]Letter extract, Healy to Mr. Black, 11/02/1885, in, Kindred Spirits: the E. Maurice Bloch Collection of Manuscripts, Letters and Sketchbooks of American Artists, Mostly of the Nineteenth Century, (Boston: Ars Libri, 1992), p.39. Lincoln was elected on November 6, 1860.

^[92]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences, 1894, pp.69-70. The artist recalled that, during the sittings, Lincoln spoke to him about a letter he was then reading in which the writer suggested that Lincoln should “put on false whiskers, to hide his horrible lantern jaws.”

^[93]Katharine McCook Knox, Healy’s Lincoln No. 1, (Katharine McCook Knox, 1959), p.3. Knox cites three newspaper articles which mention the portrait, including one in the Chicago Daily Tribune, 11/17/1860. A result of Knox’s research and campaign regarding Healy’s portrait of the “beardless” Lincoln was the issuance in 1959 by the U.S. government of a one cent stamp with this image of Lincoln, as part of the Lincoln sesquicentennial series.

^[94]Op. cit., Letter extract, Healy to Mr. Black, 11/02/1885, p.39, “Very soon after the first election of our great President, Mr. Thomas B. Bryan commissioned me to go to Springfield, Ill. and paint a portrait of him…. his conversation during the three or four sittings led me to say to my friend Bryan, ‘I am sure that man will make his mark in history’ … I never saw the great man again but once, and that was at a reception in Washington …” Based on this quotation, it does not seem likely that Healy had any other actual sittings from Lincoln. See, Joseph Lyle McCorison, Jr., “Meet Mr. Lincoln,” in The Christian Science Monitor, 02/10/1945, and, Harold Holzer, “Out from the Wilderness: Little-known Contemporary Paintings of Abraham Lincoln,” in Connoisseur, vol. 199, no. 800, 10/1978, p.127. McCorison states that Lincoln sat for Healy in May of 1861. Holzer indicates that in May of 1861 Healy made a quick crayon sketch of Lincoln, the first life portrait of the man as President.

^[95]Letter, T.B. Bryan to Healy, 11/10/1860, in, op. cit., Knox, Healy’s Lincoldn No. 1, 1959, p.3.

^[96]Catalogue of the First Chicago Art Union Distribution, Opened Dec. 7^th, 1860, at Hesler’s Gallery, 113 Lake Street…, (Chicago: Hesler’s Gallery, 1860); op. cit., Yarnall and Gerdts, The National Museum of American Art’s Index…, 1986, vol. 1, p. 7, vol. 3, pp.1670-1677. The works exhibited included, catalog nos. 2 (Harris; $300), 3 (Prayer; $225), 48 (Soult), 50 (New York Belle), 53 (Portrait of Babcock, the Artist, in the Costume of a Spanish Troubadour), 59 (Portrait of a Lady), 62 (Pres. Buchanan), 64 (Ex-Pres. Fillmore), 66 (Rossiter, the Artist), 73 (Souvenir of Marshfield), 75 (Col. Thorne), 78 (Webster), 81 (Rt. Rev. Dr. Duggan), 84 (Gen. Sam Houston), 86 (Gen. Cass), 90 (Prince Capua), 92 (Bishop Fitzpatrick), 108 (T. Burges of R.I.), 109 (Portrait of a Lady), 113 (M’E-De-Pierre, Group), 117 (Miss Sneyd, English Belle), 118 (Thomas Hoppin, artist), 144 (Portrait of a Young Lady).

^[97]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 01/01/1861. Healy received an invitation to stay with Mrs. Goddard and her father, Mr. Vinton, in Washington.

^[98]Letter, Healy to Col. E.G. Butler, from New Orleans, 02/02/1861, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll 2814, frames 99-107. A commission for portraits in Havana apparently fell through.

^[99]Op. cit., Glasgow and Johnson, G.P.A. Healy: Famous Figures and Louisiana Patrons, 1976, p.27.

^[100]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 03/31/1861.

^[101]Op. cit., Glasgow and Johnson, G.P.A. Healy: Famous Figures and Louisiana Patrons, 1976, p.27.

^[102]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.68.

^[103]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 05/20/1861.

^[104]Op. cit., Reynolds, To Live Upon Canvas…, 1980, p.10.

^[105]“ Chicago’s Old Master,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 04/22/1943, clipping located in Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Special Collections, New York Public Library.

^[106]Op. cit., Letters, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 06/30/1861, 10/20/1861.

^[107]Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 10/20/1861. Healy wrote that his debt at the time was $23,000, and that Bryan paid him $18,500 for his interest in Graceland Cemetery. Healy was a board member for the Cemetery, according to, op. cit., “Chicago’s Old Master, Chicago Daily Tribune, 04/22/1943.

^[108]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 11 or 12/1861.

^[109]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to John Nicolay, from Washington, 03/20/1862, Lincoln microfilm, no. 42237, Chicago Historical Society.

^[110]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, Clover Lawn, 08/08/1862.

^[111]Letter and receipt, Healy to Thomas Hoyne, Chicago, 11/19/1862, Chicago Historical Society.

^[112]Op. cit., “Leonard W. Volk,” in, Biographical Sketches…, 1868, p.341. The chartered Association referred to is probably the Chicago Academy of Design.

^[113]Leonard Volk, Autobiography, vol. 6, pp.22-24, Alfred Withal Stern collection, Library of Congress, Courtesy, John Hoffmann, University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign. This collection of paintings by Healy was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871.

^[114]Letter, Healy to Mrs. Bryan, 07/06/1862, Chicago Historical Society.

^[115]Op. cit., Letters, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, from Clover Lawn, 07/20/1862, 09/28/1862; op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.205. According to de Mare, Louisa’s mother had died by May of 1863.

^[116]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 11/25/1862.

^[117]Op. cit., A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Volume I, Painters Born Before 1850, 1966, p.87. The portrait of Mrs. Volk and her daughter is signed and dated, “G.P.A. Healy, 1862.”

^[118]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Goddard-Dahlgren, 02/15/1863; American Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Volume I, (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1969), p.142, catalog no. 540. The portrait of Brownson is signed and dated, “G.P.A. Healy/Chicago, 1863.”

^[119]Catalogue of Paintings, Statuary, Etc., Exhibited for the Benefit of Ladies’ North-Western Fair, In Aid of the Chicago Branch of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, for the Relief of Soldiers, Opened Oct. 27^th, 1863, in McVicker’s Theatre Building…, (Chicago, 1863), catalog nos. 3 (Thos. Hoppin, the Artist of R.I.), 4 (Maj.-Gen. Rosencranz), 5 (The Sisters), 6 (Parson Brownson), 18 (Spring), 19 (The late Abp. of Baltimore), 20 (Gov. Yates of Illinois), 26 (The Two Philosophers), 27 (Dr. E.C. Rogers), 62 (J.L. Wilson, Editor), 63 (Prof. Quackenbos), 64 (Mrs. Quackenbos & child), 85 (Lady and child), 98 (Nellie Kenzie), 106 (Portrait of a Lady), 107 (Portrait of a Gentleman), 108 (Maj. Gen’l Fremont), 109 (Montelambert), 118 (Gen’l Cass), 119 (Webster’s Reply to Hayne), 120 (Gen’l Jackson), 121 (Marshal Soult), 155 (Miss Snead, English Belle), 156 (The two Misses Thorne), 157 (Girl & Flowers (Portrait)), 158 (Daniel Webster (from life)), 216 (Portrait of a Lady), 219 (Portrait of a Lady), 225 (A Child), 233 (Rev. Mr. Williams), 335 (Family Group), 236 (Lincoln), 238 (Prescott), 250 (Thos. Sully, the Artist), 251 (Child’s Head), 260 (Douglas), 276 (The Quadroon), 288 (Portrait of a Gentleman), 289 (Group of Children), 290 (Portrait of a Gentleman), 291 (Titian’s Flower Girl), 292 (The Troubadour).

^[120]Op. cit., “Leonard W. Volk,” in, Biographical Sketches…, 1868, pp.341-342. According to this source, he did the same for the Sanitary Fair of 1865.

^[121]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.222; Halpin’s Seventh Annual Edition, Chicago City Directory, 1864-5, (Chicago: Halpin & Co., 1864), p.270, “Healy, George P.A., portrait painter, Studio 131 Lake, r resides 247 Illinois.” J.C. W. Bailey & Co.’s Chicago City Directory for the Year 1865-6, (Chicago: Bailey, 1865), p. 293, “Healy, George P.A., portrait painter, Crosby’s Opera House, bds boards 259 Wabash Av.”

^[122] Ezra McCagg was owner of a painting by this name. “American Artists – Art in Chicago,” The American Builder And Journal of Art, Chicago, August 1869, p.162. Reference courtesy of Joel Dryer and the Illinois Historical Art Project.

^[123]“Art Notes,” Watson’s Art Journal, 02/13/1869, p.205.

^[124]Letter, W.T. Sherman to I.N. Arnold, 11/28/1872, Chicago Historical Society.

^[125]Letter, typescript, W.T. Sherman to Healy, 01/13/1868, Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Special Collections, New York Public Library.

^[126]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.70. Individual, full-length portraits by Healy of the four men in the painting are in various collections, including, Lincoln (Chicago Historical Society; Newberry Library, Chicago, IL; The White House, Washington, DC), Porter (Newberry Library), and Grant (Newberry Library).

^[127]Catalogue of Paintings, Statuary, Etc., in the Art Department of the Great North-Western Fair, Held in Chicago, Illinois, June, 1865, for the benefit of the U.S. Sanitary Commission and Soldiers’ Home, (Chicago: Published for the Benefit of the Fair, 1865), catalog nos. 4 (Gov. Oglesby of Illinois), 56 (Lieut. Gov. Bross of Illinois), 68 (Archibshop McCloskey), 132 (Henry Gilpin), 204 (Little Annie (Ogden)), 205 (Portrait of a Gentleman), 206 (Maj. Gen’l Hooker), 207 (Maj. Gen’l Rosencranz), 264 (Major Scammon), 267 (Portrait). Healy painted John McCloskey again in 1875, when he became the first American Cardinal. See also William H. Gerdts, Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920: The South and the Midwest, (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990), pp.285-286.

^[128]Op. cit., Catalogue of Paintings, Statuary, Etc., in the Art Department of the Great North-Western Fair, Held in Chicago, Illinois, June, 1865 …, 1865, p. after t.p. The fifteen committee members included, Healy, Leonard W. Volk, the Right Rev. Bishop Duggan, William Barry, J. John H. Drury, U. Uriah H. Crosby, W. W. Boyington, Jas. W. Sheahan, Thomas B. Bryan, E. B. McCagg, P. Peter Fishe Reede, Geo. P. Upton, Wm. H. Clarke, Rev. R.H. Clarkson, D.D., and Edwin Burnham.

^[129]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.71.

^[130]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.226.

^[131]Crosby Opera House Art Association, its Plan and Objectives : Descriptive Catalogue of Over Three Hundred Valuable Premiums! To be Distributed among Subscribers, (Chicago: Crosby Opera House, c.1866).

^[132]Ralph Clarkson, “Chicago Painters: Past and Present,” in, Art and Archaeology, vol. 12, nos. 3-4, 09-10/1921, p.130.

^[133]Op. cit., Crosby Opera House Art Association, its Plan and Objectives …, c.1866, p.32. The Opera House was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871. Countless artist studios and works of art were destroyed not only at the Opera House but throughout Chicago.

^[134]Op. cit., Crosby Opera House Art Association, its Plan and Objects …, c.1866, p.10, prize no. 45 (Prayer).

^[135]Op. cit., J.C.W. Bailey & Co.’s Chicago City Directory for the Year 1865-6, p.293.

^[136]Edward’s Annual Director (sic) to the Inhabitants…in the City of Chicago for 1866, (Chicago: Edward’s New Directory, 1866), p.887, Healy is one of eighteen names listed under the heading for “Artists,” “Healy, G.P.A. 44 Crosby’s Opera House.”

^[137]Op. cit., “George P.A. Healy,” in, Biographical Sketches …, 1868, p.633.

^[138]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, pp.228-229. A reprint of the letter is found in de Mare’s book. However, only seventeen of the eighteen names of the men who signed the letter are recorded. The name of the eighteenth man, J. Young Scammon, is lacking. The eighteen signees include: W.B. Ogden, Mahlon D. Ogden, Chas V. Dyer, Edwin H. Sheldon, Geo. F. Rumsey, John B. Stevens, J. Young Scammon, Wm. Bross, E. W. Blatchford, W. L. Newberry, Mark Skinner, I. N. Arnold, C. Beckwith, Thomas Drummond, W. Hoyne, Edw. I. Tinkham, Grant Goodrich, E. G. Larned.

^[139]Letter, W.B. Ogden …et al. to Healy, 06/15/1867, Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Special Collections, New York Public Library, New York.

^[140]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.227-229. The house was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871. At the time the Healys were living in Rome.

^[141]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.71.

^[142]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.230.

^[143]Letter, typescript, Louisa Healy to Mrs. Fitch, 07/26/1867, Chicago Historical Society, Chicago.

^[144]Bishop Duggen, of the Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, 1859-1870. And op. cit., Op. cit., Letter, Louisa Healy to Mrs. Fitch, 07/26/1867.

^[145]Op. cit., Letter, Louisa Healy to Mrs. Fitch, 07/26/1867.

^[146]Letter, typescript, Louisa Healy to Mrs. Fitch, 09/11/1867, Chicago Historical Society, Chicago. They were married by the Archbishop of St. Louis.

^[147]Op. cit., Letter, Louisa Healy to Mrs. Fitch, 07/26/1867.

^[148]Op. cit., Letter, Louisa Healy to Mrs. Fitch, 09/11/1867.

^[149]Op. cit., “Chicago’s Old Master,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 04/22/1943.

^[150]Chicago Academy of Design, Catalogue of the Third Annual Exhibition, (Chicago, Opera House, 1868).

^[151]“The Artists’ Reception,” Chicago Tribune, 03/07/1868, p.4, Courtesy IHAP Library.

^[152]Op. cit., “The Artists’ Reception,” Chicago Tribune, 03/07/1868, p.4.

^[153]Op. cit., “The Artists’ Reception,” in, Chicago Tribune, 03/07/1868, p 4. The eight Council members are listed in the newspaper article with Healy’s name appearing first, as follows: G. P. A. Healy, W. Coggswell (1819-1903), J. C. Cochrane, Walter Shirlaw (1838-1909), G. A. Blakart, J. James F. Farringtonn Gookins (1840-1904), Charles Peck (1827-1900), and Charles Knickerbocker. Other officers included: Vice President, Henry Chapman Ford (1828-1894), Cor. Secretary, Charles Knickerbocker, Rec. Secretary, Charles H. Brower, Treasurer, Uriah H. Crosby.

^[154]Horatio Tryon, “The Arts in America,” The Art Journal, 02/01/1868, p.39.

^[155]Op. cit., “The Artists’ Reception,” Chicago Tribune, 03/07/1868, p.4. The portraits by Healy included, “Mrs. Volk and child, General Hooker, Mr. Allen, the violinist, Cyrus McCormick, Esq., Major General Sherman, Major General Sheridan, Dr--, the artist, and two portraits of children.”

^[156]“Fine Arts: Sale of Mr. G.P.A. Healy’s Paintings,” New York Tribune, 05/27/1868, p.2.

^[157]Op. cit., Chicago Academy of Design, Catalogue of the Third Annual Exhibition, 1868, catalog no. 78 (Lady and child). Healy is listed in the catalog as one of four “Honorary Academicians.”

^[158]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 07/10/1886.

^[159]Op. cit., “Art Notes,” Watson’s Art Journal, 02/13/1869, p 205.

^[160]Letter, W.T. Sherman to Healy, in Rome, 04/11/1869, Chicago Historical Society. A chromolithograph of the painting was available in 1871. See, Mark E. Neely Jr. & Harold Holzer, The Union Image: Popular Prints of the Civil War North, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), p.193. According to Sally Mills, in her entry for Healy in The Dictionary of Art, (Grove, 1996), p.277, the portrait of Lincoln in The Peacemakers is “among the most famous images of America’s 16^th president.”

^[161]Anne Brewster, “Letter from Rome: Chit-Cat about Literature, Art and Society,” Philadelphia Daily Evening Bulletin, 05/27/1869, p.1.

^[162]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.135.

^[163]Anne Brewster, “Letter from Rome,” Philadelphia Daily Evening Bulletin, 02/18/1871, p.2

^[164]Letter, B. P. Ana Maggiordi to Healy, from the Vatican, 02/12/1874, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll D130, frame 036-037, and microfilm roll 1209, frame 1178.

^[165]Op. cit., Hill, Recollections, 1930, p.1 of Chapter 7.

^[166]Op. cit., Hill, Recollections, 1930, p.2 of Chapter 7.

^[167]Letter, “Les pensionnaires de l’Academie de France” to Healy, 01/02/1871, Chicago Historical Society.

^[168]Lois Dinnerstein, “The Significance of the Colosseum in the First Century of American Art,” Arts Magazine, vol. 58, no. 10, 06/1984, p.120, note 17. The painting is signed and dated by Healy. According to Dinnerstein it is, “one of the most frequently reproduced paintings in American art.” She notes that William H. Gerdts first identified the work as a collaborative effort among the three American painters, Healy, Frederick Edwin Church and Jervis McEntee.

^[169]Letter, Healy to James Robb--, from Capri, 07/09/1871, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll 3948, frames 788-789.

^[170]Op. cit., Healy to Robb--, 07/09/1871.

^[171]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, pp.259-261.

^[172]“A Portrait by Healey,” Chicago Times, 12/6/1874, p.6.

^[173]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.125.

^[174]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.127.

^[175]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.131.

^[176]Op. cit., Bigot, Life of George P.A. Healy, 1913, pp.64-97. Reproduced here are portions of letters dated from August to November, from Healy in Romania to his wife.

^[177]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Arnold, 12/27/1872.

^[178]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Arnold, 12/27/1872; Regarding Liszt, see op. cit., Healy’s Sitters, 1950, pp.44-45.

^[179]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.263.

^[180]Letter, Healy to Mrs. T. W. Evans, 04/07/1873, from Rome, 54, Via Gregoriana, Graham Collection of Autograph Letters, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll D294, frames 722-727.

^[181]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to Mrs. Evans, 04/07/1873.

^[182]Op. cit., Bigot, Life of George P.A. Healy, 1913, p.38.

^[183]Telegram, Princess Elisabeth, of Romania, to Healy, 02/14/1874, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll 1209, frame 1179.

^[184]Op. cit., Bigot, Life of George P.A. Healy, 1913, pp.38-39. See also, Letter, Healy to Richard A. Dana Jr., 07/24/1877, Dana Collection, Massachusetts Historical Society.

^[185]Op. cit., Reynolds, To Live Upon Canvas…, 1980, p.11. The house was destroyed by fire in 1890, a year after Thomas’ death. Louisa sold the property, which was in George’s name, in 1896.

^[186]Op. cit., Reynolds, To Live Upon Canvas…, 1980, pp.1-2, 11. Thomas and Charlotte married on May 30, 1870, and had five children. In 1878, Charlotte and two of the children died of yellow fever. George’s brother, William Birmingham, died at Lucknow in 1876. Thomas died there on December 10, 1889.

^[187]Gli Uffizi: Catalogo Generale, (Florence: Centro Di, 1979), catalog no. A448. The portrait is signed and dated, “G.P.A. Healy/1875.”

^[188]Dumas Malone, editor, Dictionary of American Biography, (New York: Charles Schribner’s Sons, 1932), p.481.

^[189]Chicago Academy of Design. The Spring Exhibition and Annual Sale of Choice Original Paintings…Beginning Wednesday Evening, April 28, 1875, at the Gallery of the Academy…, (Chicago: Perry, Morris & Sultzer, Printers, 1875), catalog nos. 72 (Papa’s Coming; owned by Volk), 81 (Scammon).

^[190]“Odds and Ends,” Chicago Tribune, 10/24/1875, p.8.

^[191]“Odds and Ends,” Chicago Tribune, 01/30/1876, p.5.

^[192]Op. cit., Yarnall and Gerdts, The National Museum of American Art’s Index…, 1986, vol 1, p. 7; vol. 3, pp.1675-1677.

^[193]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.188.

^[194]Letter, Healy to Richard A. Dana, Jr. from Paris, 07/24/1877, Dana Collection, Massachusetts Historical Society. See also newspaper article, “Bismark: How Mr. Healy, the American Artist, Painted the Portrait of the German Chancellor—Some Interesting Glimpses of the Great Man’s Life … Paris, April 12,” unsourced newspaper clipping, in the Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Special Collections, New York Public Library.

^[195]Letter, typescript of, Corcoran to Healy, 05/03/1879, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll D130, frame 055.

^[196]Op. cit., A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1966, p.88. A fifteenth portrait, of President Chester Arthur, was given to the Gallery by Corcoran in 1884. The fourteen presidents represented include: John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J.Q. Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, and Lincoln.

^[197]The portrait is signed and dated “G.P.A. Healy. Pinxit. Paris May 1879.”

^[198]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 07/19/1879.

^[199]“Personal,” in New York Daily Tribune, 09/13/1879, p.4.

^[200]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 09/17/1879. Healy’s sister, Agnes (Mother Dyson) died at Kenwood Convent in 1902.

^[201]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 12/31/1879.

^[202]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 10/29/1879.

^[203]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 11/15/1879.

^[204]“Gen. Grant : A Visit to the Academy of Design Reception …,” Chicago Tribune, 12/06/1879, p.6.

^[205]Chicago Academy of Design. Exhibition, Feb’y 17, 1880. Catalogue, (Chicago: Chicago Academy of Design, 1880), catalog nos. 4 (Hon. John Wentworth), 9 (Mrs. W.F. Whitehouse).

^[206]Industrial Chicago: the Building Interests, (Chigago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1891), pp.707-708; The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1880, (Chicago: The Chicago Directory Co., 1880), p.523, George Louis is listed as an architect; The Lakeside Annual Directory, City of Chicago, 1882, (Chicago: The Chicago Directory Co., 1882), p.1431, “Healy & Millet, 297 Wabash av.” Millet was a nephew of the French sculptor, Aimé Millet.

^[207]Ellen Skerrett, ed., At the Crossroads: Old Saint Patrick’s and the Chicago Irish, (Chicago: Wild Onion Books, 1997), p.94. The windows in the Auditorium Building are by Healy & Millet.

^[208]Op. cit., Industrial Chicago: the Building Interests, 1891, pp.707-708.

^[209]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 05/30/1880.

^[210]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 08/22-26/1880.

^[211]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 09/18-30/1880.

^[212]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 12/051880, 12/08/1880.

^[213]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 12/28/1880.

^[214]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.133; Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 02/16/1881, 04/01/1881.

^[215]Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants, exposés au Palais des Champs-Elysées, le 2 mai 1881, (Paris: Charles de Morgues Frères, 1881), p.103, no. 1115 (Ferdinand de Lesseps), 1116 (S.M. Charles Ier, roi de Roumanie).

^[216]Letter, Healy to Louisa Healy, 03/26/188, in, op. cit., Bigot, Life of George P.A. Healy, 1913, p.104.

^[217]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 06/01/1881.

^[218]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 09/13/1881. At 49 W. 17^th Street.

^[219]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 12/15/1881.

^[220]Isaac N. Arnold, William B. Ogden, and Early Days in Chicago: a paper read before the Chicago Historical Society, Tuesday, December 20, 1881, (On the Presentation by Mrs. Ogden of a Portrait of her late Husband, Painted by Geo. P.A. Healy), (Chicago: Fergus Printing Company, 1881).

^[221]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 01/14/1882.

^[222]Letter, Healy to Isaac Arnold, 04/24/1882, Chicago Historical Society. Healy received $1,000 for the portrait of La Salle.

^[223]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 06/01/1882.

^[224]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 07/17/1882, 09/16/1882.

^[225]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 09/19/1882.

^[226]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 05/19/1883.

^[227]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 06/06/1883.

^[228]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 06/07/1883.

^[229]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 08/03/1883. To Laura Moutonnier.

^[230]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 08/27/1883.

^[231]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 08/30/1883.

^[232]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 09/09/1883, 09/14/1883, 09/17/1883.

^[233]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 10/26/1883.

^[234]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 12/25/1883, 12/30/1883.

^[235]Op. cit., A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1966, p.92. The portrait in the Corcoran is signed and dated, “G.P.A. Healy. April 1884.” The portrait of Pres. Arthur in the Illinois State Museum is signed, “G.P.A. Healy, W.D.C., April, 1884,” op. cit., Evans, A Catalog of the Paintings by G.P.A. Healy…, 1974, n.p.

^[236]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 06/04/1884, 06/19/1884, 06/22/1884, 06/25/1884.

^[237]L.G. Vapereau, Dictionnaire universel des contemporains, etc., 1893, consulted in, French Biographical Index, (Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1998), microfiche no. 103, frame 406.

^[238]Jeanne Mairet, Marca, (Paris: Charpentier, 1882). A second book by Mary, Tâche du Petit Pierre, was crowned by the French Academy in 1888.

^[239]Charles Bigot, Petit Français, (Paris, 1883).

^[240]Charles Bigot, Raphael et La Farnesine, gravures par Tiburce de Mare, (Paris: Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1884). Engravings by Tiburce de Mare also appear in other published books.

^[241]Op. cit., Charles Bigot, 1884, p. after t.p., “A M. George Healy, Hommage de respectueuse affection, Ses deux gendres, Charles Bigot, Tiburce de Mare”

^[242]Charles Bigot, Raphael and the Villa Farnesina, translated from the French by Mary Bigot, engravings by Tiburce de Mare, (London: K. Paul, Trench & Co., 1884). Charles and Mary Bigot each published other books in addition to those mentioned above.

^[243]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 12/24/1884, 02/07/1885, 02/08/1885, 05/09/1885, 07/10/1885, 07/20/1885, 08/31/1885, 09/04/1885, 09/28/1885.

^[244]Edith Healy, Painters of the Italian Renaissance, (New York: Belford,Clarke, 1885). Edith wrote other books, including, On Christian Art, (New York: Benziger, 1892).

^[245]The portrait is inscribed, “To my friend Eastman Johson (sic), with the kind regards of Geo. P.A. Healy. Paris. Feb 19^th, 1886”

^[246]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 02/15/1886, 02/22/1886. Johnson sent his own portrait to Healy in May of 1889.

^[247]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 08/07/1886.

^[248]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 06/27/1886.

^[249]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 10/16/1886.

^[250]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 10/10/1886. George de Mare later was a portrait painter in Chicago, and Art Director at Kansas City High School. He died tragically in a fire in 1907 in Kansas City.

^[251]Letter, Healy to E.B. McCagg, 03/03/1886, Newberry Library, Chicago. Healy wrote McCagg that, “thinking it over I felt that I had passed a very important part of my life in Chicago, that I have many good friends there and where my little fortune was made (sic)…”

^[252]McCagg & Culver, Attorneys, Chicago, “In Consideration of the agreement of the Trustees of the Newberry Library Fund…Geo. P.A. Healy,” 01/02/1888, Newberry Library, Chicago.

^[253]See correspondence between Healy and the Trustees of the Newberry Library, in the collection of the Newberry Library, 1886-1892, and 20^th century documents (1923-1924) relating to transfer of some portraits by Healy from the Newberry Library to the Healy family.

^[254]Letter, Bradley to Geo. P.A. Healy, 06/24/1891, Newberry Library, Chicago.

^[255]Letter, Healy to Blatchford, 05/25/1889, Newberry Library, Chicago.

^[256]Paintings by George P.A. Healy, 1813-1894, on Exhibit in the Newberry Library, Presented to the Library by the Artist, 1887, (Chicago: Newberry Library, n.d.), nos. 1) Sheridan, 2) Grant, 3) Porter, 4) Webster, 5) Sherman, 6) Beauregard, 7) Liszt, 8) Bulwer-Lytton, 9) Healy, 10) Everett, 11) Motley, 12) Elisabeth, 13) Mme Overbeck, 14) Duchess of Oldenburg, 15) Two Armenian Archbishops, 16) Baroness de Pierres and Daughter, 17) Bismarck, 18) Lyons, 19) Carol I, 20) Thiers, 21) Lesseps, 22) Simon, 23) Reid, 24) McCloskey, 25) Gambetta, 26) Blaine, 27) Corcoran, 28) Appleton, 29) Arthur, 30) Stanley, 31) Lincoln, 32) Poole.

^[257]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 03/11/1887, 03/17/1887, 05/05/1887, 05/09/1887, 05/10/1887.

^[258]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 06/30/1887, 07/02/1887, 07/30/1887.

^[259]Catalogue of the Loan Collection of Paintings Exhibited by the Art Institute of Chicago at the Opening of the New Art Museum, Together with Other Permanent and Loan Collections. Michigan Avenue, Corner Van Buren Street, November 19, 1887, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1887), catalog no. 74 (Armenian Fathers; AIC Collection), Washburne Collection, catalog nos. 2 (Bismarck), 3 (Gambetta), 4 (Lord Lyons), 5 (Thiers), 7 (E. B. Washburne), 8 (Mrs. E. B. Washburne).

^[260]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, see entries for 03/1888.

^[261]Letter, Healy to Miss Reid, from Seville, Spain, 05/02/1888, Archives of American Art, microfilm roll 3621, frame 6.

^[262]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 06/18/1888.

^[263]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 06/17/1888, 06/28/1888, 06/29/1888.

^[264]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 09/06/1888.

^[265]Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 06/02/1889, 09/02/1889, 06/18/1890, 09/05/1890.

^[266]Exposition Universelle International de 1889, a Paris, Catalogue général officiel, (Lille: Imprimerie L. Danel, 1889), nos. 154 (C. Bigot), 155 (Lord Lytton), 156 (Roi de Roumanie), 157 (Etude à la harpe), 158 (Stanley), 159 (M. Brownson).

^[267]Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants, exposés au Palais des Champs-Elysées, le 1er mai 1889, (Paris: Dupont, 1889), p.100, nos. 1314 (S.G. Le cardinal-archeveque de Baltimore), 1315 (Abraham Dreyfus), p. 253, no. 3324 (Guizot—étude).

^[268]Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants exposés au Palais des Champs-Elysées le 1er mai 1890, (Paris: Dupont, 1890), p. 93, nos. 1181 (Reid), 1182 (Simon).

^[269]“The Fine Arts,” Chicago Tribune, 01/25/1891, p.31. The painting was shown as part of an opening at the Art Institute along with other noted works of art lent or donated by Chicago’s important patrons. “Art Notes,” Sunday Inter Ocean, Vol. XIX, No. 299, 1/18/1891, Part 2, p.12.

^[270]George P. A. Healy, “The School Of Fine Arts,” Sunday Inter Ocean, Vol. XIX, No. 257, 12/7/1890, Part 3, p.28. George P. A. Healy, “Student Life In Paris,” Sunday Inter Ocean, Vol. XIX, No. 217, 12/21/1890, Part 3, p.24.

^[271]“Art Notes,” Chicago Tribune, 05/08/1891, p 39, and, “The Fine Arts, Chicago Tribune, 06/21/1891, p.14.

^[272]Catalogue of Paintings Presented to the Illinois State Hospital, at Kankakee, by G.P.A. Healy, American Artist, Residing in Paris, France, 1892, “Acknowledgments,” n.p., Frick Art Reference Library, New York. McCagg was president of the Hospital’s Board of Trustees at the time.

^[273]Op. cit., Catalogue of Paintings Presented to the Illinois State Hospital, at Kankakee, by G.P.A. Healy …, 1892.

^[274]Robert J. Evans, A Catalog of the Paintings by G.P.A. Healy in the Illinois State Museum Collection, (Springfield, Ill.: Illinois State Museum, 1974), Foreword, n.p. According to this source, the only “documented” reason for this gift was that McCagg “had simply convinced Healy ‘… of the benefit to the insane of such a gift’.” Twenty-three art works of Healy’s original gift of seventy-one were accounted for in 1971 when they were transferred to the Illinois State Museum. Chicagoans represented among the portraits include, Edwin Holmes Sheldon (1870), Miss Stella Dyer (c. 1885), and, William B. Ogden (1882, after portrait by Healy of 1856).

^[275]Op. cit., Catalogue of Paintings Presented to the Illinois State Hospital, at Kankakee by G.P.A.Healy …, 1892, n.p. (text appears after “Sixth Biennial Report of the Trustees … published at Springfield in 1888”)

^[276]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.292.

^[277]Op. cit., Letter, Healy to E.W. Blatchford, from Paris, 02/12/1892; see also, Op. cit., Healy Diaries, 02/20/1892 (one of two entries in a hand other than Healy’s, following his last diary entry, of 03/21/1891).

^[278]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, pp.293-294.

^[279]Op. cit., Hill, Recollections, 1930, p.1 of Chapter 9.

^[280]Unidentified newspaper article, (1894), Archives of American Art, microfilm roll D130, frame 575.

^[281]The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1892, (Chicago: The Chicago Directory Co., 1892), p.667. “Healy, George L. (Healy & Millet) 225 Wabash Av…” George Louis remained part of Healy & Millet until around 1902. The entry in the City Directory for 1902, p. 2325, under a “Millet, Louis L.,” includes the following: “Successor to Healy & Millet.”

^[282]Op. cit., Hill, Recollections, 1930, p.1 of Chapter 9.

^[283]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.294.

^[284]The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1892, (Chicago: The Chicago Directory Co., 1892), p.667, “Healy, G.P.A., artist, 268 Huron, h. 387 Ontario.”

^[285]“The Fine Arts,” Chicago Tribune, 03/20/1892, p.40.

^[286]“An Artistic Affair … Some Fine Paintings Entered for the Yerkes Prizes,” The Daily Inter Ocean, 05/31/1892, p.5. The exhibition was held at Stevens’ art gallery on Adams street. The first prize was subsequenty given to Oliver Dennett Grover (1861-1927) for his work Thy Will Be Done, now in the collection of the Illinois Historical Art Project.

^[287]Op. cit., Healy, Reminiscences…, 1894, p.70.

^[288]Revisiting the White City: American Art at the 1893 World’s Fair, (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1993), p.259. The portrait is dated 1874.

^[289]Op. cit., Reynolds, To Live Upon Canvas…, 1980, p.12. A copy of Healy’s will was filed in Claiborne County, Mississippi, 01/24/1886. In the will, in addition to providing for his wife and children, Healy also left $1,000 for each of his brother Thomas’ three children.

^[290]“G.P.A. Healy is Dead: the Famous Portrait-Painter Lays Down his Brush Forever,” Chicago Tribune, 06/25/1894, p.11.

^[291]Herma Clark, “When Chicago Was Young: Letters from Martha Freeman Esmond to her Friend Julia Boyd of New York: Chicago, June 26, 1894,” undated, Chicago Tribune, in the Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Special Collections, New York Public Library.

^[292]Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 06/25/1894, p.11.

^[293]Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 06/25/1894, p.11.

^[294]“Death of G.P.A. Healy: the Celebrated Artist Expires,” Chicago Herald, 06/25/1894, (n.p.), Healy Papers, Hay Collection, Special Collections, New York Public Library. Healy’s daughters, Mary (Mrs. Charles Bigot) and Edith (Mrs. Lysander Hill) both later died in Hinsdale, Illinois. Kathleen (Mrs. Charles H. Besley) died in California, near her daughters. Healy’s son, George Louis died in Nice, France, in 1942. Healy’s daughter, Maria Angela, a nun, died at St. Leonard’s-by-the-Sea, in England, in 1944.

^[295]Op. cit., de Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 1954, p.294, has April 15 as the date of Charles Bigot’s death. Op. cit., L.G. Vapereau, Dictionnaire universel des contemporains, etc., 1893, consulted in, French Biographical Index, 1998, microfiche no. 103, frame 406, has, April 16, 1893. Before Charles’ death he had most recently worked as a teacher of literature at the military school in Saint-Cyr, and at schools in Fontenay and in Saint-Cloud, according to, E.M. Rienzi, Panthéon des lettres, des sciences et des arts, 1893, consulted in, French Biographical Index, 1998, microfiche no. 103, frame 404.

^[296]Op. cit., Hill, Recollections, 1930, p.2 of Chapter 9.

^[297]Op. cit., Hill, Recollections, 1930, p.3 of Chapter 9.

^[298]Op. cit., Chicago Herald, 06/25/1894, (n.p.)

^[299]“By Masters of Art: Portraits to be seen at the Antiquarians’ Exhibition,” Chicago Tribune, 12/23/1894, p.10.

^[300]“Relics of Old Days: Antiquarian Loan Exhibition Commences New Year’s Day,” Chicago Tribune, 12/30/1894, p.13.

^[301]The Chicago Blue Book, 1900, (Chicago: Chicago Directory Co., 1900), p.555. George Louis is listed in the Chicago City Directories as living at 387 Ontario from 1900 to 1904, but is not in the Directory for 1905.

^[302]Op. cit., Hill, Recollections, 1930, p 3 of Chapter 9. Judge Hill died in 1913 (p.1 of Chapter 11).

^[303]“Widow of Portrait Painter Dies Suddenly,” Chicago Tribune, 02/08/1905, p.4.

^[304]Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 02/08/1905, p.4.