Henry Cheever Pratt (1803 – 1880)
Portrait of John Pratt, circa 1848
Oil on canvas

Original Frame
Signed on stretcher twice

This portrait is the artist’s son, John Pratt.

Born in Orford, NH on June 13, 1803. While working on a farm in 1817, Pratt’s artistic talent was discovered by Samuel F. B. Morse who took him to Boston as his assistant and taught him to paint. He was also greatly influenced by Thomas Cole with whom he often painted in the White Mountains. Pratt joined the Mexican Boundary Survey in 1851 as the official artist. In 1852 he exhibited his canvases in San Diego making it the first known art exhibition in California. He made a second trip to California in 1870 to paint in Yosemite. Pratt died in Wakefield, MA on Nov. 27, 1880. In: De Young Museum; LACMA; Texas Museum (Austin); Amon Carter Museum (Fort Knox).

Source:
Edan Hughes, “Artists in California, 1786-1940”
New York Historical Society’s Dictionary of Artists in America (Groce, George C. and David H. Wallace); West as Art cat.; California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 15, 1932, p. 319; First 100 Years of Painting in California (J. Van Nostrand); Texas Painters (Powers).