1813 - 1897

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• Birth	6 Nov 1813	Milton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts   [1]
  Gender	Male
  BIRT	Y  [1]
  Died	13 Feb 1897  [1]
  Person ID	I13110	Brainard (Brainerd) / Foster / Fish
  Last Modified	11 Jul 2004 00:00:00
  Father	Robert HINCKLEY, b. 1774, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
  Mother	Esther MESSINGER, b. 19 Apr 1779, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts
  Family ID	F6172	Group Sheet
  Married	1842	Milton, Suffolk County, Massachusetts   [1]
  Family ID	F6175	Group Sheet

• Notes

  Thomas Hewes Hinckley was born in Milton, Massachusetts in 1813. In 1829,he went to Philadelphia where he became a merchant's apprentice; whilethere, he also attended an evening class in drawing at the home of theartist, John Mason. In 1833, he returned to Milton, first findingemployment as a sign painter and later as a portraitist. In neither ofthese areas, however, did Hinckley succeed as he did in the painting ofdomestic and game animals. Tuckerman placed Hinckley among those animalartists who had "...made familiar and progressive a class of pictureslong prized in Holland, France, and England" by "...illustrating some ofthe most characteristic traits of animated nature, and making apparenttheir subtle relation to humanity". Hinckley's patrons were frequentlywealthy local squires or gentleman farmers who commissioned portraits offavorite dogs or cattle, as well as landscapes highlighted by prize stock. In 1851 he went to Europe to study the work of Sir Edwin Landseer, andtwo of his hunting paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy inLondon. Hinckley also admired and was influenced by the work of the 17thDutch painter, Albrecht Cuyp (1620-1691). In his notebook entries for1860 he describes one painting, "Waiting for the Milkmaid", as "Group ofCows a la Cuyp, but better." The appeal of Hinckley's work to hunters andgentleman farmers meant that they sold without difficulty and without theneed to be exhibited. However, Hinckley exhibited at the Boston ArtAssociation (1844), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts inPhiladelphia (1848, 1855) The National Academy of Design (1846), theBoston Athenaeum (1863) the Boston Art Club (1873), the MassachusettsCharitable Mechanic Association (1874) and the American Art Union in NewYork (27 pictures between 1845 and 1852), the Centennial Exhibition inPhiladelphia (1876), and the San Francisco Art Association (1872)-as wellas many others. Hinckley's work is well represented in many fine publicand private collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, theMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston, Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CorcoranGallery, Washington, North Carolina Museum of Art, Shelburne Museum,Vermont, Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, NationalMuseum of American Art, Society for the Preservation of New EnglandAntiquities, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Georgia, Albrecht-KemperMuseum of Art, St. Joseph, Missouri, and the Fruitlands Museum, Harvard,Massachusetts. HINCKLEY, Thomas Hewes, artist, born in Milton, Massachusetts, in 1813.He was apprenticed while a lad to a trade in Philadelphia, but obtainedsome little instruction in art at an evening school, during one winter,which was the only training he ever received. At eighteen years of age hewent to Boston, and two years later associated himself with a sign andfancy painter, in order to learn the use of colors. He then attemptedportraits and landscapes, and, having in 1843 made a successful paintingof dogs, determined to devote himself to animal painting, and returned in1845 to Milton, Massachusetts, where he opened a studio. In 1851 he wentto Europe, studied the works of Sir Edward Land-seer and other Englishand Flemish masters of animal painting, and in 1858 painted two picturesof dogs and game, which were exhibited at the Royal academy of that year,and excited favorable comment. Hinckley rarely exhibits his works inpublic, but his pictures are popular and numerous.

• Sources

  [S271] [MARRIAGE] FamilySearch International Genealogical Index v5.0, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.