Henry Roderick Newman was born in Easton, New York in March of 1843. The son of a physician, he followed in his father’s footsteps by pursuing a career in medicine, until his father’s death in 1861. Perhaps his father’s passing spurred a realization of life’s brevity that caused Newman to change career paths and pursue his true passion. That same year he exhibited three paintings at the National Academy of Design in New York. He became increasingly involved in the art community over the next few years, regularly exhibiting at the Brooklyn Art Association. In 1863 Newman decided to adopt a “Ruskinian” style of painting, John Ruskin was an  English critic  and  the primary influence of the Pre-Raphaelites. The Pre-Raphaelites sought to bring honesty and truth back to art; they rejected the rigid academic style that had taken over American and European art circles. The reform movement’s founders were William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, later expanding the group and calling themselves a “brotherhood.” On March 29, 1864 Newman was elected a member of The American Pre-Raphaelite Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art. His watercolors of flowers were becoming popular among Pre-Raphaelite enthusiasts due to their impeccable rendering of detail. Between 1865 and 1866 Newman taught at The Free School of Art for Women at Cooper Union, New York, a job that his friend Thomas Farrer helped him land. In 1868, due to declining health, Newman moved to St. Augustine, Florida and continued to paint there. At the time, the briny air of coastal towns were thought to improve lung health, so people with certain illnesses would often move to seaside towns until their health improved. Newman was one of the first American artists to paint the landscape of Florida. Since Newman’s career was all self-taught up until this point, he decided to head for Paris in 1870, where he enrolled in the atelier of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts. He only lasted three weeks before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, so in September he packed up and headed to Florence, and then to Venice in 1871. Though previously  he had been  primarily known for his watercolors of flowers, he now turned his focus to the architecture of Italy, loosening his brushwork slightly. In 1877, close friend of Newman’s, Charles Herbert Moore, showed his work to John Ruskin, who then bought several of his watercolors and began to commission works from Newman, and then in 1879 Newman finally met his artistic hero, John Ruskin himself. By 1883 Newman had made Florence his primary and permanent residence, but he never could squash his appetite for travel, so he continued to travel until his death. In 1885 Denman Ross organized a small solo exhibition of Newman’s works stateside at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Beginning in 1887, Newman spent almost every winter for the rest of his life in Egypt, painting the ancient architecture. In 1896 Newman went to Japan, and in 1899 he received a large solo exhibition at the Fine Art Society, London for his Japanese watercolors. Henry Roderick Newman died in Florence in December 1917. His works are included in collections such as The Metropolitan Museum, New York, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and The Brooklyn Museum of Art.