Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Greatorex, Henry Wellington

GREATOREX, Henry Wellington, musician, b. in Burton-on-Trent, England, in 1816; d. in Charleston, S. C., in September, 1858. He received a thorough musical education from his father, who was for many years organist of Westminster Abbey, and conductor of the London “concerts of ancient music.” He came to this country in 1839, settled in New York city as a teacher of music and organist of Calvary church, and frequently sang in concerts and oratorios. For some years he was organist and conductor of the choir at St. Paul's chapel. Greatorex did much to advance the standard of sacred music in the days when country singing-school teachers imposed their trivial melodies and the convivial measures of foreign composers on the texts of our hymn-books. He published a “Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Chants, Anthems, and Sentences” (Boston, 1851).—His wife, Eliza, artist, b. in Manor Hamilton, Ireland, 25 Dec., 1819, was the daughter of Rev. James Calcott Pratt, and came to New York in 1840, where in 1849 she married Mr. Greatorex. Subsequently she studied art with William H. Witherspoon and James Hart in New York, with Emile Lambinet in Paris, and also at the Pinakothek in Munich. During 1879 she studied etching with C. Henri Toussaint. In 1857 she visited England, and spent 1861-'2 in Paris. She was also abroad in 1870-'3, visiting Nuremberg and Ober-Ammergau, Germany, and various parts of Italy. In 1868 she was elected an associate of the National academy, being the first woman who received that recognition, and she is also the only woman who is a member of the Artists' fund society of New York. Mrs. Greatorex has acquired reputation by her pen-and-ink sketches, many of which have appeared in book-form, notably “The Homes of Ober-Ammergau” (Munich, 1872); “Summer Etchings in Colorado” (New York, 1873); “Etchings in Nuremberg” (1875); and “Old New York from the Battery to the Bloomingdale” (1876), the text of which was prepared by her sister, Mrs. Matilda P. Despard. Eighteen of the sketches illustrative of New York were exhibited at the Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. Her large pen-drawing of “Durer's House in Nuremberg” is in the Vatican, Rome. Among her paintings are “Bloomingdale” (1868); “Chateau of Madame Oliffe” (1869); “Bloomingdale Church,” painted on a panel taken from the North Dutch church, Fulton street; “St. Paul's Church” and “The North Dutch Church,” each painted on panels taken from these churches (1876); “Normandy” (1882); and “The Home of Louis Philippe in Bloomingdale, N. Y.” (1884).—Their daughter, Kathleen Honora, artist, b. in Hoboken, N. J., 10 Sept., 1851, has studied art in New York, Rome, and Munich. She has devoted herself to decorative work and book illustration, but latterly has won success as a painter, obtaining honorable mention for her work in the Paris salon of 1886. Many of her paintings have been flower-pieces, and she has exhibited “The Last Bit of Autumn” (1875); “Goethe's Fountain, Frankfort” (1876); panels with “Thistles” and “Corn” (1877); and “Hollyhocks” (1883).—Another daughter, Elizabeth Eleanor, artist, b. in New York, 26 May, 1854, has studied art in the National academy of design and at the Art students' league in New York, in Paris with Carolus Duran, in Munich, and in Italy. Like her sister, she has decorated china, and illustrated books, but now gives her chief attention to painting. She has exhibited at the National academy “The Bath” (1884), and “Color that Burns as if no Frost could Tame” (1885).