Ezra Ames (May 5, 1768 – February 23, 1836) was a popular portrait painter in Albany, New York during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. More than 700 portraits have been attributed to him. He was born in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1768. He moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1790, and married Zipporah Wood in 1794. Some time later he moved...

Remembered widely for his pioneering work in optics and astronomy, Alvan Clark is less well known as an artist, although he is thought to have executed some 500 oil portraits and miniatures during his lifetime. Clark was born in in 1804 in Ashfield, Massachusetts, where he spent his early years on his father's farm, working at the family mill....

Asher Brown Durand (August 21, 1796 – September 17, 1886) was an American painter of the Hudson River School. Early life Durand was born in and eventually died in Maplewood, New Jersey (then called Jefferson Village), the eighth of eleven children; his father was a watchmaker and a silversmith. Durand was apprenticed to an engraver from 1812...

Robert Street was born in 1796 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, the grandson of an English immigrant who had mistakenly been disinherited. His activity as an artist is undocumented until 1815, when he exhibited a painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He exhibited there sporadically until 1861. Between 1821 and 1823 he achieved a...

Elizabeth Jane Gardner (October 4, 1837-January 28, 1922) was an American academic and salon painter, who was born in Exeter, New Hampshire. She was an American expatriate who died in Paris where she had lived most of her life. She studied in Paris under the figurative painter Hugues Merle (1823-1881), the well-known salon painter Jules Joseph...

Alonzo Chappel (1828–1887) was an American painter, best known for paintings depicting personalities and events from the American Revolution and early 19th-century American history. Chappel was born in New York City and died in Middle Island, New York.[1] References ^ "Alonzo Chappel". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2009-01-22. External...

Thomas Bayley Lawson (January 13, 1807–1888) was an American painter. Early life and education Thomas was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts on January 13, 1807 to father William Lawson and mother Frances Lawson. He worked his way up in the dry goods industry, first as a clerk they up to having his own store at the age of 21. Also having a...

William Bennett was born in England. In 1799 the esteemed watercolor artist Richard Westall sponsored Bennett's entry into the Royal Academy of Art in London. Bennett showed an aptitude for landscape views, paying particular attention to topographical detail and the subtleties of light and atmosphere. Enrollment in the British forces in 1803 cut short...

James Wells Champney (July 16, 1843 – May 1, 1903) was an American genre and portrait painter. He was born in Boston and first studied wood engraving there, then went to Europe and studied at the Antwerp Academy and under Edouard Frère in Paris. His paintings include landscape and genre subjects, but he is best known for his excellent pastel...

James Reid Lambdin was born in Pittsburgh on May 10, 1807. His father's death in 1812 left his family in difficult financial straits, so at age twelve Lambdin left school to work in a bookstore. There he studied art instruction books and taught himself to draw. After seeing a reproduction of one of Gilbert Stuart's portraits of George Washington,...

Matthew Harris Jouett was born April 22, 1788, near Harrodsburg, in what became Mercer County, Kentucky. Except for a few trips outside the state in search of commissions, he would reside virtually all of his life in Kentucky. His father, Captain Jack Jouett, was known as the "Paul Revere of the South" in honor of his 1781 ride warning Southern...

Jacob Eichholtz was born November 2, 1776, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he spent much of his life. His first drawing lessons were rudimentary, obtained from a sign painter. He apprenticed with a copper and tinsmith before being hired as a journeyman to a master coppersmith in 1801. He established his own business, working as a tinsmith until...

James Bard was a marine artist of the 19th century. He is known for his paintings of watercraft, particularly of steamboats. His works are sometimes characterized as naïve art. Although Bard died poor and almost forgotten, his works have since become valuable. Bard had a twin brother, John (1815–1856) and they collaborated on earlier...

George Caleb Bingham (March 20, 1811 – July 7, 1879) was an American artist whose paintings of American life in the frontier lands along the Missouri River exemplify the Luminist style. Left to languish in obscurity, Bingham's work was rediscovered in the 1930s. He is now widely considered one of the greatest American painters of the 19th...

Thomas Birch, American portrait and marine painter; born in London, England, in 1779; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 3, 1851. He came to the U. S. in 1794, and assisted his artist father, William Birch, in preparing a 29-plate collection of engravings: "Birch's Views of Philadelphia" (1799).[1] Subscribers to the series...

Fidelia Bridges (May 19, either 1834 or 1835–1923) was one of the minute population of successful female artists in the 19th century and early 20th century. She painted small aspects of nature: flowers, birds, and other plants in their natural settings. She first was an oil painter and later took up watercolor painting. She was known for her...

The portraitist Frederick Randolph Spencer was born June 7, 1806 in Lennox, New York, one of four children of the lawyer and first postmaster of Canastota, General Ichabod Smith Spencer (1780-1857), and Mary Pierson Spencer (1785-1865). He evinced an early interest for art, and at the age of fifteen saw an exhibition of portraits by Ezra Ames at...

Born in Utica, New York, in 1861 the portraitist Irving Ramsey Wiles first studied art with his father, landscape painter Lemuel Maynard Wiles (1826-1905). In 1879 he followed his father's advice and moved to New York. He entered the Art Students League, where he spent two years studying with Thomas W. Dewing, J. Carroll Beckwith, and William Merritt...

Albert Fitch Bellows (November 20, 1829 - November 24, 1883), American landscape painter of the Hudson River School, was born at Milford, Massachusetts. Early years He first studied architecture and opened his own architectural firm in 1849, but quickly turned to painting. From 1850 to 1856 he taught at the New England School of Design in Boston....

Jefferson David Chalfant painted still-life images and scenes of everyday life that celebrate the ideal of manual craft in their subjects and in their technique. Chalfant was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of a cabinetmaker. He followed his father’s trade and worked with him decorating railroad cars. In 1879 he moved to Wilmington,...

Frederick Stuart Church (1842–1924) was an American artist, working mainly as an illustrator and especially known for his (often allegorical) depiction of animals. Biography He was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His father was an important figure in politics as well as a well-known lawyer. At the age of 13 he left school and took a job at the...

Daniel Huntington (October 4, 1816 – April 19, 1906), American artist, was born in New York City, New York, the son of Benjamin Huntington, Jr. and Faith Trumbull Huntington; his paternal grandfather was Benjamin Huntington, delegate at the Second Continental Congress and First U.S. Representative from Connecticut. From 1833 to 1835 he studied at...

Thomas Sully (June 19, 1783 – November 5, 1872) was a well-known American (English-born) painter, mostly of portraits. Life and career Early life Sully was born in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England, to the actors Matthew and Sarah Sully. In March 1792 the Sullys and their nine children immigrated to Richmond, Virginia, where Thomas’s uncle...

George Fuller (January 17, 1822 – March 21, 1884)  was an American figure and portrait painter. Fuller was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts. His father, Aaron Fuller, was a farmer. His mother was Aaron's second wife, Fanny Negus of Petersham, Massachusetts. His parents were not in favor of Fuller becoming a painter. At age thirteen, he went to...

Edmund Charles Tarbell (April 26, 1862 – August 1, 1938) was an American Impressionist painter. He was a member of the Ten American Painters. His work is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery and the National Academy of Design, among others. Early life and education Edmund Charles Tarbell, called "Ned" as a boy, was...