Henry H. Cross
American, 1837 - 1918
(1837-1918) Henry Cross was one of the most adventurous artists of the American West. Born in Flemingville, Tioga County, New York., he had run away from home twice by the age of fifteen to join the circus, and at sixteen he went to Paris to study with renowned animal painter Rosa Bonheur. Upon his return to America, he traveled West with a circus again, painting pictures of animals on the sides of the circus wagons. He opened a portrait studio in Chicago in 1860, but left for Minnesota in 1862 to paint the portraits of sixty Sioux sentenced to death by President Lincoln in response to the massacre of white settlers there. He learned to speak Sioux and his portraits earned him Bill (Buffalo Bill) Cody's description as " the greatest painter of Indian portraiture of all times. " By 1864 Cross was on the move again, this time to California to paint the horses belonging to Elias (Lucky) Baldwin, the colorful entrepreneur, saloon owner, and silver mine investor. An accomplished animal painter, Cross painted portraits of racehorses, but he continued to paint portraits of notable people as well. His list of clients included Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok, King Edward VII, President Grant, Sitting Bull and King Kalakana of Hawaii. He explored Indian territories, recording on canvas the interaction of U.S. cavalrymen, scouts, and Indians, and more Indian portraits. His painting Camp of Sitting Bull in the Big Horn Mountains (1873) was featured as the cover for a biography of Sitting Bull. In the 1880s Cross began painting Indian ceremonies and in the 1890s he visited the Hopi pueblos in Arizona to paint the Snake Dance. Cross' paintings are in the collections of Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Chicago Historical Society, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, San Diego Museum of Art, the Smithsonian, and the Gilcrease Institute in Oklahoma, which has an extensive collection of his portraits of Indian chiefs.
Biography courtesy of Roger King Gallery of Fine Art, www.antiquesandfineart.com/rking
Biography courtesy of Roger King Gallery of Fine Art, www.antiquesandfineart.com/rking
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