George Peter Alexander Healy’s conception is the stuff of Harlequin romance novels.  

Healy's father was an Irish merchant marine, who spent most of his life at sea fighting pirates among others. His mother was a teenaged Boston girl, whom his father fell in love with on one of his few stops at port. He offered to release her from their irresponsible engagement, but she refused to give him up. Mrs. Healy may also have saved little George’s leg in childhood. When he developed an infectious disease and doctors recommended amputation, his mom sat on his leg until the infection cleared.

Poor Healy, with his absentee father in mind, could never get over a sense of obligation to provide for his family. At the age of 16, when he discovered during a parlour game that he was talented at coloring prints, he resolved to open a painting studio to support his kin. He was helped by a daughter of Gilbert Stuart, and the preeminent portraitist Thomas Sully. The former loaned him a print of a Guido Reni painting of the Christ. It was sold to a village priest for ten dollars. Years later, the priest ran into Healy by chance and thanked him.

Healy’s greatest ambition was to paint portraits of beautiful women, and his first high-profile commission was of Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis, to whom he said, “Sit for me, madam. I do so want to paint the picture of a beautiful woman.”  She laughed in response, and he painted her laughing, in his opinion her most beautiful pose.

Healy traveled extensively in France, Italy, and England. While in London, he passed a Miss Louisa Phipps on the stairs and fell instantly in love with her, recalling “The glimpse on the stairs fixed my future destinies.” He also said, “we were both too poor to think of anything but our happiness.” She married him despite his dismal prospects, but they had a happy marriage of 50 years.

Louisa’s gamble on the penniless artist paid off. Healy rose to be one of the most successful painters of the 19^th Century.  He painted everyone (and we mean everyone) of the day, including literary figures, actors of the stage, frontier heroes, Civil War generals, European royalty, a pope, and virtually every US president of his lifetime.  

In addition to his frequent travels, he also became one of the first artists to settle in the then new city of Chicago, because of its close proximity to the well heeled elite of both the North and South. Healy died in that city at the good old age of 81, leaving over 800 paintings behind