Mark Harrison

BORN: September 7, 1819 in Hovringham, Yorkshire, England

DIED: December 6, 1894 in Fond du lac, WI

Mark Robert Harrison was born in Yorkshire, England. He was a 19th century American artist associated with the New York Adirondack area and also did Western subjects. he settled in Wisconsin in 1949 where he live the last 45 years of his life.

When he was three years old, his family moved to Oneida County, New York, and eleven years thereafter to Hamilton, Ontario. When Mark showed a talent for drawing, his now-widowed mother encouraged him by giving him the opportunity, at fourteen, to study with Bowerman in Toronto, Colby Kimble in Rochester, New York, and Henry Inman in New York City. In all he had five years training under these painters, who were steeped in the British tradition.

In 1838 he went to England for a stay of three years, a year and a half under the tutelage of Charles Hilton at the Royal Academy and the rest of the time sketching ancient architecture in the district, the Elgin marbles and other classical antiquities at the British Museum. He returned to Hamilton, where he worked on both easel paintings and huge theatrical dioramas. 

He traveled for a time with Junius Booth as an actor and then, in 1849, came to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he spent about four years in an attempt to establish and maintain a steamboat line on Lake Winnebago in partnership with his brother. The venture proving a failure, Mark moved to Fond du Lac in 1852 and set himself up as an artist. He remained in Fond du Lac until his death in 1894.

On his arrival in Fond du Lac, Harrison was too poor to send his pictures to eastern markets, so he sought permission to hang them in offices and stores, where they remained until someone offered to buy them. Gradually he had sufficient success to insure an income which allowed him to live comfortably. Most of his larger allegories and biblical studies were sent to New York and to England and France, where several commanded enormous prices.

Harrison was a prodigious worker and inquisitive scholar. In preparation for his painting he spent a great deal of time on historical research and made exhaustive studies and sketches of wild flowers and plants in accurate detail. He searched constantly for Indian history and lore, tribal traits and characteristics. He continued to paint long after he was 60 years old. He never married, and was more or less a recluse, seen only on his daily walks. He did have a few close friends and, on his death at the age of 76, he left his property to those few who were his friends. He was buried in Rienzi Cemetery at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

One of his paintings, " The Mount of the Holy Cross," hangs in the Oshkosh Public Library. The Museum of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin also have a number of his works.

Biographical Credit:  The Museum of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. From an exhibition held in Madison, Wisconsin, in March of 1950 submitted by Edward Bently to AskArt.com.