Henry Bacon

Henry Bacon was an American painter who worked mostly in France and later in Egypt. His early oils show French country life and the beaches of Normandy, while his later watercolours capture the bright light and pale stone of the Nile.

Born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, he served as a field artist in the Civil War before going to Paris, where he studied under Alexandre Cabanel. He painted around Pont-Aven and Étretat, wrote about Paris for American readers and later travelled widely in Egypt, where he died in Cairo. His Landing of the Pilgrims is at Pilgrim Hall Museum.

His work is in the Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Look at his light: in his French scenes it is soft and silvery, in his Egyptian ones clear and hot.