Theodore Pine (1827-1905)

Theodore Pine, born in 1827 in New Jersey to portrait artist James Pine and Maria Crane Pine, moved frequently in search of new subjects and to manage his fragile health, at various times maintaining studios in New York City, Mount Vernon, Chicago, St. Louis, and Asheville, North Carolina. In 1879, he helped establish what is today the Art Institute of Chicago, and his works are held in museums, historical societies, universities, and public libraries. Although his time in Sing Sing, later Ossining, was brief, it was productive, and he painted many portraits of its wealthier citizens. In 1860, Pine's parents were living on Croton Ave., though the family's association with Sing Sing may have begun earlier. Father and son frequently exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York City alongside Academy founder Frederick Stiles Agate, born in Sparta, and Robert Havell, a Sing Sing resident. A devout Methodist, Pine may also have visited Sing Sing for the annual Camp Meetings at Campwoods Grounds, which drew thousands from New York City. Pine married twice: in 1865 he married Phebe McLane, a farmer's daughter from New Castle, and they had two sons, neither of whom reached adulthood; Phebe died in childbirth in 1882. Ten years later, on a return trip to Chicago, he met Cornelia Stillwell, an art student who became his second wife. The couple eventually settled in her hometown of Ogdensburg, New York, where Pine died in 1905. He was buried in Ossining in the family plot with Phebe, his firstborn son Charlie, his parents, his sister Eliza Muchmore, and her son Theodore.

Ossining, New York · United States