Charles H. (Charles Henry) Caffin

Charles Henry Caffin was an Anglo-American writer and art critic, born in Sittingbourne, Kent, on June 4, 1854. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, and later worked in teaching and the theater before moving into writing about art. In 1888 he married Caroline Scurfield, a British actress and writer, and the couple later had two daughters.

Caffin moved to the United States in the early 1890s and became part of American cultural life during a period of rapid change in the arts. Reference sources describe him as especially perceptive about newer artistic movements, and he was also an early advocate for treating photography as a serious art form rather than just a technical craft.

He wrote widely on painters, sculpture, and photography, helping non-specialist readers feel more at home with galleries and exhibitions. That mix of accessibility and serious attention made him an important interpreter of art for the public in the years before his death on January 14, 1918.