Charles Cromwell Ingham was a precocious youth who, at the age of thirteen, began studying drawing at the Royal Dublin Society. He subsequently received instruction from the portraitist William Cumming and commenced his career as an artist. In 1816 he joined his parents when they moved to New York City. Ingham immdiately established himself as a portraitist and began to exhibit his works at the American Academy of Fine Arts. He quickly established his reputation as one of New York's leading portraitists and was especially renowned for his portraits of women and children.
Although Ingham originally maintained close ties with the American Academy of Fine Arts, he abandoned his affiliation shortly after he became a founding member of the National Academy of Design in 1826. During the following years Ingham proved himself a dedicated member of the Academy: he frequently served on the Academy's council and "committee of arrangements" for Annual Exhibitions, and from 1846 to 1850 he served as its vice-president. In 1850, however, Ingham became firmly opposed to an alteration in the Academy's constitution which was designed to remove all restrictions on the election of new academicians. When his opposition proved unsuccessful, Ingham declared that the vote had been passed illegally and had an injunction served on the Academy which barred it from acting on the new constitution. The dispute was eventually resolved, yet Ingham remained estranged from the Academy for the following seven years. During this period he travelled extensively along the Atlantic seaboard in search of new commissions. In 1858 he resumed his affiliation with the Academy and in 1860 he was, again, elected vice-president. At the annual meeting following his death he was remembered:
He was often a member of the Council, was for several years Vice President, and allways [sic] earnestly advocated what he thought to be the true interest of the Institution. He was a man of extensive information, frank and impulsive in character and often gave offence by the fearless energy of his opposition. His bitterest opponents respected his abilities, his conscientiousness, and many independents.
