Henry Francis Farny was born in Alsace, France in 1847, yet most of his career was spent in Cincinnati, Ohio.  In 1853, his family emigrated from France to western Pennsylvania, where he became acquainted with the Seneca Indian tribe and established his lifelong interest in Native American tribes.  His family moved to Cincinnati in 1859, and after his father’s death, he started working as a lithographer of Civil War scenes.  He began illustrating for Harper’s Weekly in New York City, and eventually, he moved back to Cincinnati where he drew circus posters and continued his illustrations.  In 1881 he made his first trip back to the West, where he began work on the Indian paintings for which he is well known, His paintings often memorialized the Plains Indians in their daily life, including quiet scenes of camp life, hunting parties, and life on the trail.     

Studied

Briefly with Thomas Buchanan Read, Rome, 1867; with Herman Herzog in Dusseldorf, 1868-1870; with Wilhelm Diez, Munich 1873; Europe, including Munich, 1875-76; with Cincinnati friends, Duveneck, Dengler, and Twachtman

Member

Cincinnati AC

Exhibited

Cincinnati AM; Vienna Exp., 1883; Paris Expo, 1889 (medal); Calif Midwinter Int’l Expo, 1894; AIC, 1895-96; Boston AC, 1896; Charleston Expo, 1902 (medal); St. Louis Expo, 1904 (medal); Corcoran Gallery, 1908

Work

Cincinnati AM; Univerity of Texas, Austin; Taft Museum, Cincinnati; Amon Carter Museum

References

WW15; Henry Farny, New York, Spanierman Galleries, 1981; Hughes, Artists of California; P & H Samuels; Sotheby’s "The American West;  the John F. Eulich Collection" 1998; Cincinnati Painters of the Golden Age; Eldredge, et al., Art in New Mexico, 1900-1945