Inman

tomer to return the picture, and then he "cut off
all the legs and sent it back with $200."

In 1826 Inman was elected vice-president of
the newly established National Academy of De-
sign, of which he was one of the founders. He
served in this office from 1826 to 1830, and again
from 1838 to 1844. In 1832 he married Jane
Riker O'Brien, and moved to Philadelphia, where
he became a director of the Pennsylvania Acad-
emy and was associated with Col C. G. Childs
in a lithographic business. His home until 1835
was at Mount Holly, N. J., near Philadelphia,
where he bought a country house in pleasant
surroundings. He was fond of the country, liked
to paint landscapes when he had the time, and
complained because his patrons would buy noth-
ing but portraits. He had a taste for natural his-
tory, Buffon being one of his favorite authors.
After 1835 he returned to New York. For sev-
eral years thereafter he was kept busy, but about
1840 the tide turned against him, and to add to
his troubles the asthma, from which he had suf-
fered periodically for years, became more severe,
and he was deeply depressed.

In 1844 he was commissioned by three gen-
erous friends—James Lenox, Edward L. Carey,
and Henry Reed—to go to England for the pur-
pose of painting the portraits of Wordsworth,
Macaulay, and Dr. Chalmers. This proved a for-
tunate venture, and for a time resulted in Inman's
improved health, renewed courage, and freedom
from economic care. He had a very happy so-
journ at Rydal Mount as the guest of Words-
worth whose portrait, now belonging to the
University of Pennsylvania, was notably suc-
cessful. Wordsworth spoke of him as the most
decided man of genius he had ever seen from
America (Dunn, post, p. 250). Inman's daugh-
ter Mary, who accompanied him on this trip, won
all hearts by her beauty and gracious manners.
While at Rydal, Inman made some landscape
studies, including a view of Rydall Falls, and he
made a drawing of the poet's house and garden
from which later he painted a picture, now at
the University of Pennsylvania, in which he in-
troduced two small figures, one of Wordsworth
and the other of himself. Going up from the
Lake District to London, he was received with
open arms by Leslie, Maclise, Mulready, and
Stanfield, and his portraits of Macaulay and
Chalmers were considered among his best. He
also painted the portrait of Lord Chancellor (Tot-
tenham* He was urged to remain in London,
btit domestic duties and the precarious state of
his health obliged him to return to New \ ork in
1845. He then began the execution of a commis-
sion from Congress to furnish a series of his-

Inman

torical paintings for the Capitol at Washington;
and he was at work on the first of these, depicting
the cabin of Daniel Boone in the wilds of Ken-
tucky, when he died of heart disease at the age
of forty-five. An important memorial exhibi-
tion of 126 of his works was held soon after
his death in New York. It contained many of
his best pictures.

Among his sitters were Chief Justice Marshall,
President Van Buren, William H. Seward, De-
Witt Clinton, John James Audubon, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Charles Fenno
Hoffman, George P. Morris, Peggy O'Neill Ea-
ton, Clara Barton, and Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes
Smith, advocate of woman's rights. He also
painted portraits of Lafayette and William Penn.
His genre pictures and landscapes were popular.
"Mumble-the-Peg" (in the Pennsylvania Acad-
emy) was engraved for The Gift for 1844. "The
Boyhood of Washington" was based upon epi-
sodes recounted by Sparks in his biography. Of
other works of this nature may be mentioned
"Picnic in the Catskills" (Brooklyn Museum),
"The Young Fisherman" (Metropolitan Mu-
seum), "Rip Van Winkle's Awakening," and
the "Bride of Lammermoor." His "View of Ry-
dal Water" (Brooklyn Museum) was painted at
the suggestion of Wordsworth, who was with
him while he made the sketch. His last painting,
"An October Afternoon/' a landscape with fig-
ures, shows a rustic schoolhouse on the edge of a
wood, with children at play. Inman's work was
facile and exact in drawing, and it was often
likened to that of Sir Thomas Lawrence. He
was unequal, however, and at times meretricious.
Isham calls him competent but commonplace,
and finds "more likeness than character" in his
heads. As a man Inman was likable and so-
cially gifted. He was a good talker, wrote a lit-
tle in prose and verse, and could hold up his
end of an argument. His likeness shows him to
have been a rugged person, with a thick wavy
mane of hair, keen serious eyes, a large mouth,
strong nose, broad brow, and determined jaw.
He left five children, one of whom was Henry
Inman, 1837-1899

[C. E. Lester, The Artists of America (1846) ; F. B.
Hough, A Hist, of Lews County, in- the State of JV. Y.
(1860) ; Esther C. Dunn, "Inman's Portrait of Words-
worth," Scribner's Mag., Feb. 1920; Wm. Dunlap, A
Hist, of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in
the U. S. (3 vols., 1918) ; H. T. Tuckennan, Book of

Am. Paintings (1918); N. Y. Tribune, Jan. 19, 1846.]
W.H.D.
INMAN, HENRY (July 30, i837-Nov. 13,
1899), Union soldier, author, was born in New