William Henry Howe Biography

William Henry Howe was born in Ravenna, Ohio in 1846. Abandoning his business career, William's interests and abilities in painting took him to Europe, where he studied at the Royal Academy in Düsseldorf, and with the noted animal painters Felix Vuillefroy and Otto de Thoren in Paris. This latter experience, combined with a trip to Holland, set Howe upon a course towards becoming a painter of pastoral scenes and placid cows in the tradition of the Dutch Golden Age masters Aelbert Cuyp and Paulus Potter. He achieved recognition in this genre: by 1888, he had won the gold medal at the Paris Salon. In 1896, he became Officier d'Academie, and in 1898 received the Cross of the Legion d'Honneur.

Howe's work is found in such prestigious collections as the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA; St. Louis Museum, St. Louis, MO; and the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, among many others. He was one of the founders of the art colony in Old Lyme, CT.