Charles Henry Hayden (1856 – 1901)

Charles Henry Hayden – painter of landscapes, animals, rivers, marine and coastal scenes in oil and watercolor – was born on August 4, 1856 in Plymouth, MA and died of kidney disease in Belmont, MA on his birthday in 1901. In his short life of 45 years, he was a very productive and accomplished artist. Hayden’s contributions to the art community continued at death when he bequeathed $50,000 to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA.

Hayden’s art education started in 1886 when he and his close friend, Edward Herbert Barnard (1855-1909), studied with John B. Johnson. Later, in 1877, they continued their education in the premier class at the School of Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. After a brief period in the early 1880s designing stained glass in Boston, Hayden and Barnard went abroad to study with Jules-Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1911); Gustave Boulanger (1824-1888); and Raphael Collin (1850-1916) at the Académie Julian in Paris from about 1885 to 1889.

When they returned to the United States they settled in a studio at the Harcourt Building located on 23 Irvington Street in Boston, MA. They are listed at that address from 1891 to 1899. In 1901, the year of his death, Hayden is listed as living in Belmont, MA. Artist and friend, Philip Hale, praised Hayden in the catalog for his memorial exhibition at the St. Botolph Club in December of 1901 by stating that he was he was the best of the landscape painters in America at that time.

Hayden belonged to the Boston Art Club and Boston Watercolor Society and, for a decade, was an active exhibitor. He exhibited thirty-two paintings at the Boston Art Club from 1891 to 1901; in 1901 he was listed as Charles M. Heyden in the Boston Art Club Exhibition Record. He also exhibited at the Paris Salon, 1889; the Paris Exposition, 1889, honorable mention for “Morning on the Plains, St. Leger, France”; the National Academy of Design, 1890-91; the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, 1892-98 and 1900-01; the Jordan Gallery in Boston, 1895, $1500 Jordan prize for “Turkey Pasture”, now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the Atlanta Exposition, 1895, silver medal; the Paris Exposition, 1900, bronze medal for “Connecticut Hillside”; the Art Institute of Chicago; and his 1901 memorial exhibition at the St. Botolph Club in Boston.

Charles Henry Hayden’s work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, DC, “The Poplars, Chatham, MA”; the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, ME; the Steven Straw Company in Seabrook, NH; Sotherby Park Bernet in Los Angeles, CA; and many private collections.

References:
Peter Falk, “Who Was Who in American Art”, 1999, page 1501; Davenport’s Art Reference 2003/2004, page 894; Mantle Fielding, 1986, page 387; Mallett, page 185; “Dealer’s Choice Biographical Encyclopedia of American Painters”… 2002 page 609; Boston Art Club Exhibition Record 1873-1909, page 208; Smithsonian Institution Research Information System; Sandra Lepore, Lepore Fine Arts, Newburyport, MA, “Painters of the Harcourt Studios”, page 9.

Biography from the Archives of AskART