Caffin, Charles Henry

Extract

Caffin, Charles Henry (04 June 1854–15 January 1918), art critic and author, was born in Sittingbourne, Kent, England, the son of the Reverend Charles Smart Caffin, a Church of England minister, and Harriet (maiden name unknown). Both parents were talented amateur artists. In 1873 Caffin received a scholarship to attend Pembroke College at Oxford University, where he received his B.A. in 1877. Following graduation, he worked as a teacher for several years before joining an itinerant theater troupe, Ben Greet and His Shakespearean Players, as an actor and stage manager. In 1888 he married fellow player Caroline Scurfield; they had two daughters. Caffin and his family immigrated to the United States in 1892. He first worked in the decorations department of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which led to his next job making cartoons for mural paintings in the new Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. His first essay on art and architecture was published in Herbert Small’s ...