As a teen, he was taken by his parents to Paris for formal training in art, graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts. In his twenty years there, he trained from 1864 to 1884 under master portraitist Charles Auguste Emile Durand, alongside John Singer Sargent. Of his more than 350 paintings, his most famous is The First Operation with Ether. Begun in Paris in 1882, it depicts the first successful public demonstration of etheranesthesia; it is now on display at Harvard's Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. He was also known for his mammoth historical painting, Alexander at Persepolis, completed at the Salon in 1882. His work was described thusly:
Mr. Hinckley has creditably achieved what neither our American artists nor authors seem very fond of attempting--a carefully sustained and elaborate historical study. The varying emotions which Alexander's purpose calls out are strongly depicted in the faces and attitudes of those present as guests and spectators. The approval of the dissolute old Roman reclining with his paramour on the right, is strikingly expressive of a general fondness for cruelty and rapine, while there is the animus of a personal hatred in the elan with which Thais raises her threatening torch on high The figure of Alexander is well-poised and his attitude highly dramatic, but I like best the expressive face and eloquent action of the woman in the central foreground. Admiration, affright and jealousy are marvelously mingled The picture was shown in last year's Salon and in the National Academy Exhibition this season"
Washington studio
In 1884, after returning from Europe, Hinckley established a studio in Washington, D.C. where he was known for portraits of eminent Americans. In addition to his portraits, he also taught a portrait class at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design for six years. He painted many portraits of American Society individuals including, President Ulysses S. Grant, and John Alsop King, the president of the New-York Historical Society. 88 of his portraits were on display at West Point Military Academy. His painting of "PYGMALION AND GALATEA" has been exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1880, Collection Berko Fine Paintings - Belgium.
Personal life
In 1885, Hinckley was married to Eleanor O'Donnell, who predeceased him. They lived in Washington at 1623 16th St NW in a home designed Fuller and Wheeler of Albany in 1886, and were the parents of a son and daughter, Robert O'Donnell Hinckley and Gladys Hinckley, who married McCeney Werlich, the European representative of American Locomotive Company. Hinckley's sister, Susan Hinckley Bradley was also a well-known painter. As a teen, he was taken by his parents to Paris for formal training in art, graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts. In his twenty years there, he trained from 1864 to 1884 under master portraitist Charles Auguste Emile Durand, alongside John Singer Sargent. His most famous painting is "The First Operation with Ether", which he began in Paris in 1882. It was the first successful public demonstration of ether anesthesia. It has become one of the most popular paintings in medical history and is on display at Harvard University's Countway Library of Medicine in Boston. He was also known for his mammoth historical painting, "Alexander at Persepolis", completed at the Salon in 1882. In 1884, after returning from Europe, Hinckley established a studio in Washington, D.C. where he was known for portraits of eminent Americans. In addition to his portraits, he also taught a portrait class at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design for six years. He painted many portraits of Americans including President Ulysses S. Grant and John Alsop King, president of the New York Historical Society. Eighty-eight of his portraits were on display at West Point Military Academy. Hinckley's wife was "murdered on the street by young thugs", at age 84, in front of their residence in Washington, D.C. He died at his residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on June 2, 1941.
