biography of John DONAGHY (1838-1931)

Birth place: Hollidaysburg, PA

Death place: DeLand, FL

Addresses: Pittsburgh, PA; NYC; Deland, FL, late 1890s-1931

Profession: Genre and landscape painter

Studied: Pittsburgh Sch. of Ges.; with George Hetzel, Albert L. Dalbey, Eugene Craig, Issac Broome; ASL; NAD

Exhibited: Pittsburgh Artists Assoc.; PAFA, 1867, 1876-78; NAD, 1869-86; Brooklyn AA, 1869, 1873-82, 1886; American WC Soc.; St. Louis Expo, 1904

Comments: During the Civil War, he enlisted as a private in the Penn. Volunteers in December 1861 and rose to the rank of captain, even acting as an artist-correspondent for the newspapers. He was wounded, captured, and imprisoned at Andersonville Prison, from which he escaped in April 1864. After the war he worked for several newspapers in Pittsburgh and NYC, and subsequently became a well known genre painter. Author: Army Experiences of Capt. John Donaghy, 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1864, 1926.

Sources: G&W; Panorama (Nov. 1946), 29; Artists Year Book, 54; MS Military and Pension Records at National Archives, disability discharge, Dec. 19, 1864; Rutledge, PA; Cowdrey, NAD; Chew, ed., Southwestern Pennsylvania Painters, 34, 37, 38.