Alfred C. Howland

Alfred Cornelius Howland was a man of the best and oldest New England stock and of a rare personal charm, now almost antiquated. He had boundless ambition, but it was exhibited in the meticulous performance of simple duties, in the genius for kindly service, in a passion for good-fellowship. Born at Walpole, New Hampshire, seventy-one years ago, he had his education from 1860 onward in Düsseldorf and Paris, finding the companionship of his soul among plain folk and the expression of his ideals in the work of the Barbizon artists. It was the worth and the charm of daily life in quiet scenes that furnished the coy beauty which he ever sought to express in his painting. So, ofttimes, he caught and portrayed nature when off her guard, and fixed on the canvas with loving care her most precious, because her most unconscious moods. He was for many years at home amid the scenes of his birth, then for a long time in this metropolis and at the close of life in California. He was a member here for 43 years, often seen in these rooms, and is sadly missed by the friends who recall him with tender affection.

William Milligan Sloane
1910 Century Association Yearbook