Charles Caffin

Charles Henry Caffin (born June 4, 1854 – January 14, 1918), was an American writer and art critic, born in Sittingbourne, Kent, England. After graduating from Magdalen College Oxford in 1876, with a broad background in culture and aesthetics, he engaged in scholastic and theatrical work. In 1888 he married Caroline Scurfield. In 1892 he moved to the United States. He worked in the decoration department of the Chicago Exposition, and after moving to New York City in 1897, was art critic of Harper's Weekly, of the New York Evening Post, the New York Sun (1901–04), the International Studio, and the New York American. His publications are of a popular rather than a scholarly character. His writings were suggestive and stimulating to layman and encouraged interest in many fields of art. His essay, Art for Life's Sake, listed below, described his philosophy.

Published Works

• Handbook of the New Library of Congress, compiled by Herbert Small; with Essays on the Architecture, Sculpture and Painting by Charles Caffin (1897)
• Photography as a Fine Art (1901)
• American Masters of Painting (1902)
• American Masters of Sculpture (1903)
• How to Study Pictures by Means of a Series of Comparisons of Paintings and Painters (1905)
• Story of American Painting (1907)
• A Child's Guide to Pictures (1908)
• The Appreciation of the Drama (1908)
• The Art of Dwight W. Tryon (1909)
• Story of Dutch Painting (1909)
• Story of Spanish Painting (1910)
• A Guide to Pictures for Beginners and Students (1910)
• Story of French Painting (1911)
• Francisco Goya Lucientes(1912)
• Art for Life's Sake (1913)
• How to Study the Modern Painters (1914)
• How to Study the Old Masters (1914)
• The A.B.C. Guide to Pictures (1914)
• How to Study Architecture (1917)

References

• Johnson, Allen, ed. Dictionary of American Biography. New York:Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936.

• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain