An artist at the turn of the century from the small coastal town of Warren, Rhode Island, Henry Cady was best known for his seascapes of the New England coastline with a sensitive touch for capturing the effects of sky and sunlight conditions as they affected the sea and rocky shoreline in ever-changing rhythms. As a self-taught painter, Cady exhibited amazing ability at a young age. One of his paintings, dated 1869 when he was twenty, of seacoast waves crashing on the rocky New England shore, hangs in the John Hay Library of Brown University.

Cady was born on July 8, 1849, near the waters of Narragansett Bay. His leisure was spent in the quaint harbor of Warren where old whalers and merchantmen landed. Here he learned to k...