biography of Benjamin Franklin REINHART (1829-1885)

Birth place: near Waynesburg, PA

Death place: Philadelphia, PA

Addresses: New Orleans; London, England; NYC

Profession: Portrait, historical, genre & landscape painter

Studied: received a few lessons in Pittsburgh, c.1844; NAD, 1847-49; Düsseldorf, Paris & Rome, 1850-53

Exhibited: NAD, 1847-84; PAFA Ann., 1868-80; Brooklyn AA, 1868-76

Member: ANA, 1871

Work: CGA.

Comments: Reinhart began painting portraits at age 16. In 1853 he opened a portrait studio in NYC, but also made a number of extensive trips into the Midwest and South. He went to New Orleans in 1859 and entered into a partnership with Theodore Sidney Moise (see entry). In 1861 (or early 1862) he left for London, where for the next seven years he had great success as a painter of portraits and genre scenes. He returned to NYC in 1868 and lived there for most of his remaining years, although he died in Philadelphia. During these years, Reinhart concentrated his efforts on genre and historical subject pictures, many of which were reproduced as chromolithographs. His most popular works were anecdotal scenes with little girls. Pittsburgh artist, Charles Stanley Reinhart (see entry), was his nephew.

Sources: G&W; DAB; CAB; Clement and Hutton; Cowdrey, NAD; Ohio BD 1859; New Orleans CD 1860-61 (cited by Delgado-WPA); Rutledge, PA; Falk, PA (vol. 2); Graves, Dictionary; Fleming, History of Pittsburgh, III, 626. More recently, see Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists; Edwards, Domestic Bliss, cat. no. 68 (with repro.); P&H Samuels, 394; 300 Years of American Art, vol. 1, 231; Falk, Exh. Record Series.