Bret Harte was born in New York State, but in 1854, after the death of his father, his family moved to California. By the end of the decade he was writing clever sketches of frontier life for the San Francisco magazine Golden Era. His short stories, such as "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," published in the late 1860s, provided ample proof of the rich literary potential that was to be found in the rough-hewn life of his state s gold-mining frontier.

Harte, a restless soul, left for the East in 1871. In both Boston and New York, he found himself lionized as the West's most brilliant and promising writer. Nevertheless in 1878, Harte took a position as a commercial agent in Crefeld, Germany. In 1880 he became U. S. consul in Glasgow, Scotland, but, bored by the town and his duties, he traveled frequently to London and moved there in 1885.

John Pettie, a Scotsman living in London and a member of its Royal Academy, was known for his historical paintings and portraits. The artist was clearly proud of this portrait, for he exhibited it at the Royal Academy in 1885 and at the Jubilee exhibition in Berlin the following year before he gave it as a gift to the sitter, with whom he had become friends.

John Pettie (1839-1893)
Oil on canvas, 1884
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
NPG.69.52

Enlarged image

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