One of a Thousand/Bicknell, Albion Harris
Bicknell, Albion Harris, son of Nehemiah B. and Louisa (Drew) Bicknell, was born in Turner, Androscoggin county, Maine, March 18, 1837.
His early education was received at the public schools, and, as soon as circumstances would permit, he devoted himself to the profession of an artist with all the zeal which had been gathering through years of earnest desire, and with a success which very soon demonstrated his choice to have been almost a necessity of nature.
On the 20th of July, 1875, he was married, in Somerville, to Margaret Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver W. and Sarah (Simpson) Peabody. At present he resides in Maiden.
When only twenty years of age, Mr. Bicknell was well established in Boston as a portrait painter, but desire for studying art in foreign countries induced him to go abroad, and in 1861 he crossed the Atlantic, and entered the studio of Thomas Couture and L'École des Beaux-Arts, where he remained an earnest student for two years, and afterwards spent two years in visiting art centres of Europe, and in the pursuance of his studies. In 1864 he returned to America and again opened a studio in Boston.
Among the many well-known portraits which he has painted may be mentioned those of Horace Mann, Henry Wilson, Anson Burlingame, Chief Justice Isaac F. Redfield, Lot M. Morrill, the latter for the treasury department at Washington, and a duplicate of the same for the state capitol of Maine, where also may be seen his full length portrait of Abraham Lincoln. "Lincoln at Gettysburg" and "The Battle of Lexington" are, perhaps, among the best known of Mr. Bicknell's historical pictures—the former containing twenty-two life-size portraits in full length. Through the generosity of the Hon. E. S. Converse this painting is now the property of the Maiden public library.
Mr. Bicknell is also well known as a landscape painter, etcher, and worker in black and white. In 1882 a special exhibition of his works was given in the rooms of the Society of Artists, London, and the well deserved honorary degree of A. M. was conferred upon him in 1884 by the Colby University.