In 1890, Henry Farny moved to Covington where he could escape the city and focus more on painting, as visitors often disrupted him in his 4th floor studio at Pike’s Opera House. He’d rented a place the previous summer in Covington and found the escape from the city rewarding and productive. Whether the purchase of a property in Covington in 1890 had anything to do with his first wife Lilly, then married three years, and the adoption of Thomas Ray, Jr., who was Lilly’s nephew, and the wardship of Annie Ray–Lilly’s niece who became Farny’s second wife–is less clear (Thomas Ray, Jr., and Annie Ray were siblings). But, that’s a story for another day.
As Farny blended into the social scene in Covington, he apparently developed a tight group of “cronies” by the mid 1890s that would meet in Farny’s tree-laden open-air back yard for dinners. The cadre included Dr. James Wise, Edward Flynn, a newspaper reporter, Theodore Hallam, attorney, and Frank Fowler, of the Newport, Kentucky, race track.
One day this group decided to make fun of Dr. Wise. According to a 1905 article, The jest cost exactly $250, 50 friends putting in $5 each for the copy of a book written by Hallam and Fowler and handsomely illustrated by Farny to trace the imaginary history of a story Dr. Wise had tried to tell each of them. They said the joke was a “chestnut” and in the book illustrations show ancient Egyptian, Roman, Greek and other types of art down through the mediaeval period to early American woodcuts, Indian bark sketches and up to the modern day drawings. In each of these is Dr. Wise depicted as telling the story.
The illustrations include representations of Farny, Hallam, Dr. Wise, at the very least; It’s not hard to spot Farny’s caricatures of himself in the drawings. There was even an a tongue-in-cheek advertisement for the book in 1899:
The most sublime Sunday school novel of modern times is ‘The Lady and the Flea,’ lately published by Harry Farny and Theodore Hallam. Hallam did the drawing and Farny librettoed it. It deals with human nature after dark, and has a very nice binding. The work should be in the hands of every young lady, and no policeman’s home is complete without it. Copies can be obtained from the Society for the Prevention of Christianity among Animals. Calf. C.O.D. $8.90 Half, calf, gratis. Flea Asa Bird & Co., Duluth, Minn.
Here are some snap shots of the book, though these aren’t all the pages:
The Cincinnati Art Museum has some original illustrations Farny created for the book:
- lady-and-the-flea-sketch-self-portrait-as-peasant.jpg
https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/explore-the-collection?id=21232904&title=Self-Portrait-as-a-Peasant-Attendant-to-King-Alfred-from-a-Saxon-Manusceript-Plate-F-for-%22The-Lady-and-the-Flea%22 - lady-and-the-flea-sketch-self-portrait-bent-knee-CAM.jpg, https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/explore-the-collection?id=21232958&title=Self-Portrait-as-a-Royal-Attendant-Plate-H-for-%22The-Lady-and-the-Flea%22
- lady-and-the-flea-sketch-self-portrait-as-samurai-CAM.jpg, https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/explore-the-collection?id=21232688&title=Self-Portrait-as-a-Samurai-with-a-Geisha-Plate-A-for-%22The-Lady-and-the-Flea%22
- lady-and-the-flea-sketch-self-portrait-as-egyptian-CAM.jpg, https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/explore-the-collection?id=21232850&title=Self-Portrait-as-Scipio-Africanus-on-a-Roman-Mosaic-Plate-D-for-%22The-Lady-and-the-Flea%22
- lady-and-the-flea-sketch-self-portrait-lady-and-gentelman-CAM.jpg, https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/explore-the-collection?id=21233012&title=Miniature-of-a-Lady-and-Gentleman-Plate-J-for-%22The-Lady-and-the-Flea%22
- lady-and-the-flea-sketch-self-portrait-as-winged-egyptian-CAM, https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/explore-the-collection?id=21232796&title=Self-Portrait-as-a-Winged-Figure-oon-an-Assyrian-Bas-Relief-Plate-C-for-%22The-Lady-and-the-Flea%22
