Henry Bowen, Oil on Canvas

The artist James J. Sawyer grew up in northeast Connecticut, close to Woodstock. He and Henry Bowen became acquainted after Sawyer moved to New York to train as an artist and find clients. Although Sawyer made a decent living in New York, mostly painting copies of old family portraits, he eventually returned to Connecticut. He painted this portrait of Henry Bowen in the 1870s. The curtain in the background is pulled back to reveal the windmill at Roseland Park, suggesting how important the park was to Bowen.