Waterfront

Born in Washington, DC in 1869, Nichols was likely initially drawn to painting as a result of being from an artistic family; his father, Henry Hobart Nichols Sr., was an engraver, and his brother, Spencer B. Nichols, was a painter. Henry Hobart Nichols studied with Howard Helmick and Edmund Clarence Messer at the Art Students League in Washington, and went on to further his artistic education at the Académie Julian in Paris. He worked as an illustrator for the United States Geological Survey and for the Bureau of American Ethnology. His work was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago,