Harding, Chester

Harding, Chester, 1792–1866, American portrait painter, b. Conway, Mass. He worked as an itinerant portrait painter long enough to enable him to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Design. Later he practiced in St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and Boston and had three years of artistic and social success in London. On returning to the United States he became the fashionable painter of Boston. His principal portraits are those of Daniel Webster (one in the Bar Association, New York City, and one in the Cincinnati Art Mus.); John Randolph (Corcoran Gall.); as well as effective characterizations of Chief Justice Marshall, Henry Clay, and Washington Allston.