Read, Thomas Buchanan

Read, Thomas Buchanan an American artist of some renown, deserves a place here for his distinction in works on sacred subjects. He was born in Chester County, Pa., March 12, 1822. When but seventeen years old he entered the studio of a sculptor in Cincinnati, intending to devote himself to sculpture for life; but painting soon proved the more attractive to him, and he practiced sculpture only as an amateur. In 1841 he went to New York, then to Boston, and settled in Philadelphia in 1846. He visited Europe first in 1850, since which time he has lived in Fiorence and Rome, passing some interval in Cincinnati. His pictures and his poems have the same characteristics, as might be expected. They are full of aerial grace and delicacy; anl exquisite refinement anan ideal charm mingle in all he did. And yet he sometimes wrote with the spirit we find in Sheridan's Ride, and painted with such force as is seen in Sheridan and his Horse. Among his most charming pictures is his Star of Bethlehem. He died in Europe, where he had resided for over five years, while on his way home, May 11, 1872.