Harry Aiken Vincent

Harry Aiken Vincent
Portrait of Harry Aiken Vincent by Howard Everett Smith ca 1920, National Portrait Gallery
Born1861
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died1931 (aged 69–70)
NationalityAmerican
Known forPainting
MovementImpressionism
"Drying the Sails after the Rain" by Harry Aiken Vincent
"Venetian Fishing Boats" by Harry Aiken Vincent
Harbor Scene by Harry Aiken Vincent
"Impressionist view of trees and a stream" by Harry Aiken Vincent, 1892

Harry Aiken Vincent (1861[1][2]-1931) was a largely self-taught American artist known for his plein air landscape paintings. Many of his oil paintings portrayed marine scenes at the start or end of the day, featuring boats and fishing activity in New England, particularly on Cape Ann, and in France. The treatment of water, sky, light and color in his works was representative of the American school of Impressionism. He was also skilled at water color and drawing in charcoal.

Vincent was born in Chicago and began his artistic career working for Thomas G. Moses of Sosman and Landis as a scenic painter for theaters, creating elaborate backdrops.[3][4]

His earliest known oil paintings often depicted rural scenes of towns and farms outside of Chicago. In 1893 he exhibited at the World's Fair in Chicago.[5][1] Vincent moved to the New York City area in the late 1890s, when his work increasingly drew the recognition of his peers and the attention of collectors. He maintained a studio at 155 W. 29th Street in New York City between 1907 and 1917. In 1907 he won the Shaw Prize awarded for a work in black and white by the Salmagundi Club.[6] He also won the Turnbull Prize in 1918,[7] and the Porter Prize in 1925.[8] In 1928 he was recognized with the Samuel Twybill Shaw prize for watercolor.[9] He also won the Paul L. Hammond prize given by the New York Watercolor Club for his painting "Rockport Harbor".[8]

In the latter part of his career, until his death in 1931, Vincent lived in Rockport, Massachusetts, on Atlantic Avenue facing the inner harbor. He became a respected senior member of the Rockport Art Association, which he helped to found in 1921, serving as its first President,[10] and the North Shore Art Association.[11][4] Like other Cape Ann artists, he created many views of Gloucester harbor, and interpretations of an iconic fish shack on a wharf in Rockport, known fondly as Motif Number One.[12] Street scenes and landscapes of the local granite quarries also attracted his eye, but he was continuously drawn to seaside settings.

In the 1920s he found new subjects through travels in Europe, including England, Italy (Venice and Chioggia) and France (St Tropez, Menton). While in Brittany, he produced a series of scenes of Concarneau, a small fishing village.[13][11]

Harry Vincent was married twice, to Catherine F. Ryan in Chicago in 1884, with whom he had two children,[1] and then to Mildred Deitz in New York in 1916.[4]

  1. ^ a b c Columbian Expedition Dedication Ceremonies Memorial: A Graphic Description of the Ceremonies at Chicago in October, 1892. Chicago, Illinois: Metropolitan Art Engraving and Publishing Company. 1893. pp. 568. "Harry Aiken Vincent".
  2. ^ Note: Conventionally, H.A.Vincent's year of birth is shown as 1864. However, the year 1861 is substantiated by two sources, both of which give his date of birth as 14 Feb 1861; (a) his biography from the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and (b) his passport record from the passenger manifest on a trip to Europe in 1927. Furthermore, the US Census records for his parents' household in Chicago in 1870 and 1880 also support a birth year of 1861.
  3. ^ Waszut-Barrett, Wendy (20 Nov 2017). "Thomas G. Moses and Harry A. Vincent". Dry Pigment. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  4. ^ a b c Waszut-Barrett, Wendy (22 April 2021). "Sosman & Landis: Shaping the Landscape of American Theater- Employee No. 22 Harry A Vincent". Dry Pigment. Retrieved 28 Jan 2022.
  5. ^ Carr, Carolyn Kinder (1993). Revisiting the White City: American Art at the 1893 World's Fair. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. National Museum of Art & National Portrait Gallery. p. 338. ISBN 0937311014.
  6. ^ Salmagundi Club (1907). "Samuel Twybill Shaw Prize for Black and White". Salmagundi Club. Retrieved 28 Jan 2022.
  7. ^ Salmagundi Club (1918). "Frank Sandison Turnbull Prize". Salmagundi Club. Retrieved 29 Jan 2022.
  8. ^ a b "Harry A Vincent Obituary". The Boston Globe. 1 Oct 1931.
  9. ^ Salmagundi Club (1928). "Samuel Twybill Shaw Prize for Water Color". Salmagundi Club. Retrieved 29 Jan 2022.
  10. ^ Recchia, Kitty Parsons (1940). Artists of the Rockport Art Association. Rockport, MA: Rockport Art Association. p. 9.
  11. ^ a b Curtis, Judith A (2006). Harry A Vincent ANA and his contemporaries. Gloucester, Massachusetts: Rockport Art Association.
  12. ^ Vincent, Lawrence M (2011). In Search of Motif No. 1: The Life of a Fish Shack. The History Press.
  13. ^ McDougall, Daniel. "Harry Aiken Vincent". McDougall Fine Arts Galleries. Retrieved 28 Jan 2022.