Category: Paintings

In 1886, Farny completed two paintings which may have been companion pieces. One is called ‘An” Old-Timer”‘, currently located at the Blanton Museum, and the other is titled “Cowboy”, which…

One of Farny painting that reached new eyes is the 1892 painting “Mountain Trail“. This painting was featured in a classic PBS Antique Road Show episode, where the owner had…

Farny’s Suspicious Guests was published in the February 05, 1887, issue, of Harper’s Weekly, pages 96-97. I have yet to locate the original of this illustration. After seeing the illustration…

On May 14, 1883, the Cincinnati News-Journal reported that Farny had completed a painting he called Issue Day at Standing Rock and would soon send it to Harper’s Weekly. The…

In 1893, Farny lent a painting called With the Pony Herds to 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. It appears that painting is now titled Indian Encampment. It was auctioned by Christies…

The March 14, 1893, issue of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette feature an extensive biography of Farny and included the image of the 1890 painting The Apaches Are Out! owned by…

In 1901, Farny completed “Pastures New“. In 1969, this painting was stolen from a home in Indian Hill. An attempt to sell the painting in 1980 resulted in the arrest…

In 1896, Farny completed Return of the War Party, which showed an Indian war party traveling along a river. The river winds from left to right, towards the background before…

The 1884 book of Eclectic’s Primary History of the United State included a sketch showing an Indian against a steep rock, gun in hand. Farny would later repeat this theme…

The Blanton Museum at the University of Texas has, amongst its collection of Farnys, a painting he completed in 1889 called Peace Be With You. It closely resembled a sketch…

In Harper’s Weekly July 24, 1886, Farny’s illustration A Cheyenne Courtship made the cover. It can be viewed below: In 1892, Farny created a very similar, more refined painting of…

On April 30, 1884, The Cincinnati Commercial Gazette commented on Farny’s newest Indian work, noting that Farny was using a ‘higher key’ than normal, meaning he may have been experimenting…

Harper’s Weekly published Farny’s Toilers of the Plain, one of his more famous pieces, in June of 1884. Two years earlier, in 1882, he completed a slightly different version of…

Joaquin Miller wrote a story called “Lost on the Plains” for the October 1884 issue of St. Nicholas Magazine. The story included two paintings by Farny. The first painting that…

In 1882 Farny completed an oil painting titled “After Many Days”. The painting, put on exhibition at Wiswells, is based on a poem by Heinrich Heine, a German poet. There…

In 1906, the Cincinnati Art Museum held its annual art exhibit. Included in that exhibit was Farny’s The Coming of the Fire Horse, according to an article in the July…

A Clevelander by birth, Frank Wiborg moved to Cincinnati, attending high school at the Chickering Scientific and Classical Institute. In 1878, he co-launched, with Levi Ault, Ault & Wiborg, a…

In early February 1895, a group of friends, acquaintances of Farny, met to ponder two paintings recently completed by Farny, one titled The Big Chief and the other The Medicine…

On December 15, 1883, Harpers Weekly published an illustration by Farny captioned with the name A Dance of Crow Indians. The image depicts an evening event related to the Last…

A picture from 1875, readily available on the internet (though there it’s often attributed to 1874), shows Farny, Frank Duveneck, and Frank Dengler in Duveneck’s studio with the painting “Prayer…

In the December 25, 1881, issue of the Cincinnati Commercial, a reporter mentioned he’d spotted Farny, likely a day or two before Christmas, mailing Christmas cards. The article also noted…

On August 28, 1881, The Cincinnati Enquirer published a list of portrait painters, a list to which Farny was added despite his effort to decline the offer (perhaps not wanting…

The Cincinnati Commercial reports for Leap Day in February of 1880 included a glowing review of Farny’s newest painting, “Heath Blossoms“. It was as good as anything Farny had ever…

Farny unveiled his first Indian-themed work titled Indian Graves (by a newspaper) in October of 1877. The painting followed a trip west several months earlier. Despite what many biographies claim,…

A November 25, 1879, report in The Cincinnati Commercial, page 8, noted that Farny was working on a painting he called “Field Mice“, which featured some children burning a pile…

On November 15, 1879, page 7, The Cincinnati Commercial reported that Farny had a landscape titled “Hoyden Weather” on display in the window of Robert Clarke & Co. The reported…

In November of 1878, Henry Farny began exhibiting “The Silent Guest”, a painting of a well known local elderly German figure who always sat in silence while drinking his beer…

Henry Farny entered his painting, the Coast of Capri, at the 1870 Cincinnati Industrial Exposition. As the excerpt below notes, the painting attracted quite a bit of attention. The excerpt…

Indian Ink Sketches and Wood blocks: While juggling all the work related to Ye Giglampz, Farny found time to do a series so India ink sketches for engravings. The results…