HEALY, GEORGE

born July 15, 1813, Boston, Mass., U.S. died June 24, 1894, Chicago, Ill. in full George Peter Alexander Healy American academic painter of highly realistic portraits. The son of a sea captain who died when Healy was still young, he had to work to support the family and eventually, at age 18, opened a Boston studio. In 1834 he went to study in Paris, where his facile style soon secured for him a large clientele. In his studios in Paris (183455 and 187392), Chicago (185567 and 189294), and Rome (186773), he often painted as many as 50 portraits in a year. Among his subjects were King Louis-Philippe of France, Pope Pius IX, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, and a series of U.S. presidents from John Quincy Adams to Ulysses S. Grant. He also painted historical scenese.g., Daniel Webster Replying to Hayne, a monumental portrayal of Congress with scores of individuals delineated. His autobiography, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, was published in 1894.