Born Today in 1881: Impressionist Painter Russell Cheney

Russell Cheney with long-time partner F. O. Matthiessen in Normandy, 1925.

Russell Cheney was born on this day, October 16, in 1881. He was an American Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and New England regionalist painter.

He was the longtime partner and lover of author F. O. Matthiessen. Matthiessen was 20 years Russell's junior. 

There is a book titled, Rat & The Devil: Journal Letters of F. O. Matthiessen and Russell Cheney.  The blurb for the book reads: 

They met in 1924 - a middle aged artist and a promising young graduate student. Their loving relationship lasted for 20 years, ended only by one partner's death. The artist was the talented Russell Cheney and the student was F. O. Mattheissen, who would become one of America's foremost literary historians and critics. From over 3,000 of their letters, editor Louis Hyde has selected those which fully reconstruct this fascinating story of two great men in love.

Cheney died on July 12, 1945. He was survived by Matthiessen and two sisters.