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Robert Goodloe Harper, by Harper Pennington, c. 1885.
Oil on canvas. 29 7/8 x 23 63/64 in. (75.9 x 60.9 cm). Maryland Historical Society, Accession: 1885-1-1.
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Adalbert J. Volck, by Harper Pennington, 1882. Oil on canvas. 40 1/32 x 29 59/64 in. (101.7 x 76.0 cm.) Maryland Historical Society, Accession: 1922-16-3.
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Medium/Discipline: Painting, Works on Paper
Birthplace: Newport, Rhode Island
Place of Death: Baltimore, Maryland
Maryland Affiliation: Depicts Maryland subjects, Active while in residence
Prominent Theme: Portraits; Caricatures
Places of Residence: New York City; Baltimore, Maryland
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: White
Biography: Robert Goodloe Harper Pennington moved among the most influential American artists of the late nineteenth century. Pennington was a prolific and talented painter of portraits of New York society men and women, as well as of children. Pennington is best known for his fashionable portraits of the leisure class, and his style is reminiscent of John Singer Sargent.
Pennington's family boasted relations to important Maryland figures including the Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Robert Goodloe Harper, the U.S. Senator. He maintained a studio on Charles Street in Baltimore and was listed as an artist in the Baltimore city directories of 1880. Pennington was a member of the Baltimore Charcoal Club and friend of the Maryland artist A.J. Volck, of whom he did ink drawings.
Pennington traveled widely throughout his life. He studied in Paris with Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904, French) and Carolus-Durand, in London with painter and printmaker James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903, American), as well as in Rome and Venice. James A. Whistler was a friend as well as instructor whom Pennington pictured "as a Butterfly" in a ca. 1885 caricature, drawn with pen and india ink. The caricature resides in a private collection.
Selected References: The J. Hall Pleasants Files at the Maryland Historical Society.
Maryland Institutions Holding Artworks: Maryland Historical Society
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