The Favorite Falcon

Although acclaimed for his post-Civil War scenes of a simpler American past, Thomas Hovenden was in fact Irish-born and European-trained. Orphaned at six during the potato famine, he was apprenticed to a carver and guilder, before attending the Cork School of Design, which contributed to his skill in draftsmanship. The artist emigrated to New York at twenty-three to join his brother, but was back in Europe ten years later for further training. Hovenden's six years in France dramatically marked his style. From Alexandre Cabanel, Hovenden increased his mastery of the figure; while the Breton village of Pont-Aven - a magnet for late nineteenth century artists - provided the themes of family, courage, and struggle that would find later expression in his very popular works set in America. "The Favorite Falcon" is a rarity in Hovenden's oeuvre. Painted during the winter of 1878-79 in Paris, it is one of a series of historical costume pictures emphasizing light themes of love and courtship. It is perhaps reflective of the artist's own situation: the models for this cavalier and lady are Hovenden himself and Helen Corson, an expatriate Pennsylvania painter whom Hovenden would marry two years later, in 1881. The artist taught at the Pennsylvania Academy from 1886 to 1888. He was killed in a railway accident near his Plymouth Meeting home in 1895.