Taylor, Henry Fitch, 1853-1925

Henry Fitch Taylor was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1853. He studied at the Académie Julian, in Paris, and in 1885 went to Barbizon to paint. He returned to America in either 1888 or in 1889, and established his studio in New York City. Between 1898 and 1908 Taylor resided in Cos Cob, Connecticut. He was part of the Cos Cob Art Colony. Among his visitors there were John Twachtman, Childe Hassam, Willa Cather, Arthur B. Davies, George Luks, and Walt Kuhn; many of these acquaintances would come to play an important role in Taylor's life as an artist. His art responded to and explored Cubism.

Taylor served as the first president of the American Association of Artists and Painters (AAPS), the organization which mounted the 1913 Armory Show; he later stepped aside from that role in favor of Arthur B. Davies, but continued to serve as trustee and secretary of AAPS.

Taylor married Clara Sidney Potter Davidge, the daughter of Bishop Henry Codman Potter, on March 20, 1913. They moved to her estate on Staten Island. She drowned in 1921. Taylor died on September 10, 1925, in Plainfield, New Hampshire.