American Art Collaborative

Henry Inman was apprenticed to the artist John Wesley Jarvis from 1814 until 1821. Their collaboration fostered a successful partnership in which Jarvis would often paint the heads and Inman the costumes and backgrounds for their full-scale portraits, allowing them to complete as many as six portraits each week. By 1824, Inman was collaborating with Thomas Seir Cummings, and gave up painting miniatures to concentrate on larger portraits. Inman played a prominent role in the New York art world, helping to found the National Academy of Design in 1826, where he served as vice president for five years