William John Hennessy
The Race
1860

About the Item

William John Hennessy was born in Ireland. He came to America in 1849 with his mother and brother a year after his father had fled their homeland after taking part in the unsuccessful Young Ireland Party uprising. The Hennessys settled in New York, and when young William came of age, he decided upon a career as an artist. At the age of fifteen, he enrolled at the National Academy of Design, where he learned to draw from the antique, and the following year he was granted admission to the Academy’s life-drawing class. Hennessy first exhibited at the National Academy in 1857, starting a continuous run of appearances in their annuals that lasted until 1870, when he expatriated himself to Europe. During his time in America, Hennessy was principally known as a genre painter and prolific illustrator for such publications as Harper’s Weekly and a number of books, including illustrated works of William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. Hennessy left the United States and settled in London, living there and in its environs variously for a few years, and summered in Normandy, where he ultimately established a permanent residence in 1875. In 1893, Hennessy returned to England, but continued to spend a good deal of his time in France. Though the bulk of his career was spent abroad, Hennessy maintained a lifelong identification as an American, and exhibited with other American expatriates in both the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, in 1876, and also occasionally sent works to the National Academy’s annual exhibitions. Few works by Hennessy are known today. From what one can glean from the surviving works, early on in his career, Hennessy appears to have concentrated on genre scenes and Barbizon-influenced landscapes, while in the late 1870s he appears to have adopted an more aestheticized style derived from Whistler and the English Pre-Raphaelites. His later works, from the mid-1890s on, show the strong influence of Impressionism. Works by Hennessy are in public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; the National Academy of Design, New York; the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Massachusetts; the Century Association, New York; and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. The present work, exhibited by the artist at the 1860 Annual Exhibition at the National Academy of Design, New York, as The Race, is a quintessential mid-century genre scene, a sure-fire winner for a young artist looking for an audience. In the center of the picture, Hennessy paints two adult passengers seated behind a driver in a sleigh drawn by a graceful prancing horse. A man and a woman, dressed for the occasion, are cushioned by what appears to be a fur wrap. The female wears a white fur bonnet and matching fur jacket, while the driver is amply protected from the cold by a hat with a wind visor and ear flaps, a high-collared vest, and gloved hands that hold his riding crop. Observing this elegant equipage, a group of four children in the foreground decide to test their own mobility against that of the horse and sleigh. A stylishly turned out-girl dressed in a fancy bonnet and red cape sits erect on a cushion on a child's sled, holding the railing and clutching her doll. The leads on her sled are held by an older boy who appears to be about to race against the horse-driven sleigh. While there is no guarantee that the girl on her sled is related to the adults, her elaborate outfit and china doll complexion suggest a link. The children in the picture are all appropriately dressed for the cold. A second pair of sledders, both young boys, watches the race. One boy holds two leads for another boy who sits on an improvised sled. Bare trees offer a winter landscape element for Hennessy, while in the background a small cityscape reveals three buildings including a church with a snowy spire and pitched roof lines. The overall composition evokes high spirits and bracing weather, a mythic look at winter in New York City with the nation on the brink of Civil War.

Creator:
William John Hennessy (1840 - 1917, British)
Creation Year:
1860
Dimensions:
Height: 18 in (45.72 cm)Width: 24.25 in (61.6 cm)
Medium:
Canvas,Oil
Movement & Style:
American Realist
Period:
19th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
Seller: APG 8694.0031stDibs: LU235434811
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