Shortly after moving to the United States from England in 1858, Farrer joined a community of painters who admired John Ruskin, an English art critic and political thinker who encouraged artists to reject conventional artistic training and instead work directly from nature. Farrer quickly rose to prominence within this group, and in 1863 he co-founded the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art, an organization dedicated to promoting Ruskin’s views in the United States, including the abolition of slavery.

Farrer’s earliest American artworks are portraits of fellow adherents of Ruskin, including the painter John Henry Hill, shown here playing the fiddle in his studio. Paintings and art supplies surround Hill, who sits absorbed in concentration. The scene serves as a visual manifesto of Ruskin’s principles: Hill’s musicianship symbolizes the importance of mental discipline and physical dexterity in art—two qualities echoed in the meticulous detail of Farrer’s pencil rendering.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023).