American artist and poet, son of William Cranch, chief justice of the circuit court of the District of Columbia; born at Alexandria, VA, on the 8th of March 1813; graduated at Columbian College in 1831 and at the Harvard Divinity School in 1835. He retired from the ministry three years later to devote himself to art, and studied in Paris and in Italy from 1846 until 1863. He became a National Academician in 1864. As an artist he was known by his landscapes, and as an author by his poems. Among his paintings are Afternoon in October (1867); The Washington Oak (1868); Venice (1870); Venetian Fishing-Boats (1871); etc. His Poems were published in 1844, many of them collected from The Dial. He is also the author of some graceful stories for children: The Last of the Huggermuggers (1856); Kobotozo (1857); and The Bird and the Bell (1875). He resided in New York City and Cambridge, MA, dying at the latter place on the 20th of January 1892.—His brother, John Cranch, is also an artist, devoting himself to portrait-painting, and is an associate of the National Academy. See also “Gnosis,” etc.
