Robert Goodloe Harper Pennington (October 9, 1854 – March 15, 1920) was an American artist, illustrator, and portraitist.Queer Places:
École des Beaux-Arts, 14 Rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris, France
Green Mount Cemetery, 1501 Greenmount Ave, Baltimore, MD 21202, United States
Robert Goodloe Harper Pennington (October 9, 1854 – March 15, 1920) was an American artist, illustrator, and portraitist.
Harper Pennington was born on October 9, 1854, in Baltimore, Maryland. Coming from a prominent and aristocratic American family, he was named after his great-grandfather, former U.S. Senator Robert Goodloe Harper, and was a great-grandson of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Pennington studied art in Paris under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts. He later traveled to Munich and joined a circle of American painters in Florence and Venice led by Frank Duveneck (known as the "Duveneck boys").
While in Venice, Pennington formed a close friendship with famed expatriate artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who heavily influenced his style. Pennington later followed Whistler to London, where they frequently crossed paths, and Pennington even drew portraits of Whistler.
In London and Paris, Pennington became exceedingly popular among high society and artistic circles, painting prominent figures including poet Robert Browning and works commissioned by King Edward VII (then the Prince of Wales).
In 1888, Pennington married Caroline DeWolf Theobald, with whom he had five children before their divorce in 1913.
Pennington returned to Europe periodically and spent his final years in declining health. He died of pneumonia on March 15, 1920, at a sanitarium in Catonsville, Maryland, and was buried in Baltimore's Green Mount Cemetery.
Even though Harper Pennington was not openly or documented as gay himself, his artistic career intersected in a striking way with queer history. He created definitive portraits of major figures connected to the gay world, and those canvases eventually found their permanent or private resting places in the hands of prominent gay men of later eras:
The Oscar Wilde Portrait: In 1884, Pennington painted a life-sized, full-length oil-on-canvas portrait of Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, presenting it as a wedding gift to Wilde and his bride, Constance Lloyd. The painting famously hung above the drawing-room fireplace in their Tite Street home. Following Wilde's catastrophic 1895 prosecution for homosexual acts and subsequent bankruptcy, the portrait was dispersed, eventually making its way to American collector William Andrews Clark Jr. (passed via his lover Harrison Post). It ultimately anchored the Oscar Wilde collection at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA and traveled to Tate Britain for its landmark 2017 "Queer British Art" exhibition.
The Robert Gould Shaw II Portrait: Pennington also painted a striking nude portrait of wealthy Boston socialite Robert Gould Shaw II (father of the gay historical figure Robert Gould Shaw III) posing as "Little Billee" from George du Maurier’s bohemian novel Trilby. This homoerotic masterpiece was acquired by Gilded Age high-society arbiter Henry Symes "Harry" Lehr, who secretly navigated same-sex desires within Newport circles and proudly hung the nude painting in his private bedroom.
Oscar Wilde, c. 1884
Robert Gould Shaw II as Little Billie from George du Maurier's Trilby
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