Daniel Huntington

While younger artists were overthrowing traditional forms of painting in the post-Civil War years, Daniel Huntington held strong to the methods of the Old Masters, ultimately establishing himself as leader in the art world and the official portraitist of New York society. After attending Yale University and Hamilton College (and with the encouragement of mentor Charles Loring Elliott), Huntington began to produce his best known works, portraits, along with genre paintings and landscapes in the romantic, painterly style of the Hudson River School. Extensive travels and studies in Europe familiarized Huntington with the traditions of the Masters, which in turn inspired his allegorical, didactic paintings and inclusion of religious and historical references within his subject matter. Leaving a body of 12,000 works, Huntington is best known for his portraits of notable faces, including Abraham Lincoln and Sir Charles Eastlake.