A notable figure in the art life of New York City during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, George Henry Story “painted portraits, landscapes and figure pieces with . . . equal talent.”1 He was also active in the museum world, holding curatorial positions at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Connecticut.
Story was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on 22 January 1835. He began his career at the age of fifteen, serving as an apprentice to a wood carver from 1850 to 1853. Intent on becoming a professional painter, he went on to study with Charles Hines, a New Haven-based portraitist, and with Louis Bail, another local portraitist. He then spent a year in Europe, visiting galleries and museums and studying independently in cities such as Paris. In 1858 he moved to Portland, Maine, where he won the State Medal of Maine for the best oil painting.
In 1860––probably to further his career as a portraitist––Story established his studio in Washington, D.C., remaining there for two years. During this period, he became friendly with Abraham Lincoln, establishing the pose for the president’s first official photograph. Story also made several sketches of Lincoln that served as reference sources for his later portraits of the president. Following this, Story went to the Caribbean for about a year. Around 1867, he settled in New York City, where he continued his activity as a portraitist, depicting many well-known New Yorkers. He also painted genre scenes that were much admired for their deft handling of the figure and skillful manipulation of light and shadow. His oeuvre also includes landscapes, a subject he explored increasingly towards the end of his career.
Story exhibited his work at the annuals of the National Academy of Design in New York from 1867 to 1896. He also exhibited intermittently at the Brooklyn Art Association and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1876 he won a medal at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, where he exhibited three oils: Young Mother, Echoes of the Sea and The Young Student. Story was elected an associate member of the National Academy in 1875. He also belonged to the Lotos Club and the New York Artists Fund Society, where he served as president for nine years.
In 1889, Story was appointed Curator of Painting at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, remaining in that position until 1906. He also served as Acting Director of the museum during 1904-05 and was curator emeritus from 1906 to 1922. During his tenure at the Metropolitan, Story organized several important exhibitions, including a memorial exhibition of Frederic E. Church (1900), and compiled a catalogue of the museum’s collection of paintings (1905). Story also served as an honorary curator at the Wadsworth Athenaeum (1899-1922), advising that institution on the acquisition of European and American paintings.
Story died in Manhattan on 24 November 1922. Examples of his work can be found in leading public collections throughout the country, including the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts; the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the White House, Washington, D.C.; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Francine and Sterling Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts;
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1.“George H. Story, Artist, Dies at 87,” New York Times, 25 November 1922. A number of biographical sources state, incorrectly, that he died in 1923.
