James Arthur Benade was one of Reading's first and best known landscape artists of his time. His early death was a positive loss to art. Many of his pictures, famous for their skies particularly, are to be found in galleries in Philadelphia and New York, as well as in several private collections. One or two examples in the Reading Museum.
He was the son of Andrew Benade, Bishop of the Moravian Church in the United States, and his wife, Maria Henry, daughter of Judge Henry, very prominent in Lancaster affairs, particularly during the American Revolution. Mrs. Henry succeeded her husband as treasurer of the county.
The Benade family was of noble Hugenot blood of France, but fled the country upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, into Germany, and came from there to America in the 18th century. The children of the artist and his wife, Sarah Moers Benade, were James Arthur Benade (whose daughter Katharine serves on the 175th Publicity Committee as Official Interviewer), married to Louisa M. Wilkinson; Patrick Henry Benade, married to Serena Martin; Esther High Benade and Sarah Moers Benade.
The artist's wife was a descendant of the High-Keims and Captain Peter Nagle and died at the age of 99.
Source: Official Program of the 175th Anniversary of the Founding of Reading, PA, and the 150th Anniversary of the Reading Volunteer Fire Department Sept. 30th to Oct. 6th 1923, ed. by the Chairman of the Publicity Committee, Reading, PA, 1923, p. 125.
Submitted by: Nancy.
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