Artists

Bingham grew up in Missouri and began as an itinerant preacher and portrait painter. The American Art-Union became an important market in the 1840s.

Largely self-taught, Copley established a successful portrait practice in colonial Boston. He also made miniatures in oil on copper and watercolor on ivory.

Durand began as an engraver, gaining fame for his 1823 print after Trumbull's Declaration of Independence. An Adirondacks trip with Thomas Cole in 1837 helped turn him toward landscape.

Eakins studied art and anatomy in Philadelphia before training in France and Spain.

A Loyalist, Earl went to England in 1778, trained with Benjamin West and exhibited at the Royal Academy. After returning to America, he was confined in debtors' prison in 1786–1788.

Raised in the Hudson Valley, Gifford sketched the Catskills, Adirondacks and Shawangunk Mountains.

Harnett began engraving steel, copper and wood in Philadelphia before specializing in silver flatware. After moving to New York in 1869, he worked for silver manufacturers including Tiffany.

Raised as a Quaker, Hicks apprenticed to a coachmaker and painted coaches and signs. He became an unpaid itinerant minister in 1811.

Orphaned during the Irish famine, Hovenden trained in carving, gilding and drawing in Cork.

Johnson advertised himself as a self-taught painter in Baltimore in 1798. Directories recorded his portrait practice from 1796 to 1824, serving the merchant middle class.

Kensett learned engraving in his father's business and worked on banknotes before turning to landscape. He spent seven years in Europe during the 1840s studying older masters.

Leutze's family came from Germany to the United States as political refugees in 1825. He began as an itinerant portrait and miniature painter before studying in Düsseldorf.

Born in England, Spencer moved with her family to Ohio in 1833 and received little formal training.

Pratt was born in Philadelphia to a goldsmith and apprenticed at fifteen to his uncle James Claypoole, a portrait, sign and house painter.

Ryder trained at the National Academy of Design and joined the Society of American Artists in 1878.

Alexander joined Harper's Weekly as an office boy at eighteen and became an illustrator in 1875. He later studied in Munich and worked with Frank Duveneck in Italy.

Goodridge was listed as a miniature painter in Boston by 1818 and opened a studio in 1820. Gilbert Stuart advised her, and she made miniature copies of his portraits.

Stuart trained first with Cosmo Alexander in Newport and then with Benjamin West in London. The Skater established his reputation in 1782.

Duncanson was born free in upstate New York into a family of housepainters and carpenters. He established a Cincinnati studio supported by patrons including abolitionists.

Tavernier trained with Félix-Joseph Barrias in Paris and adopted Barbizon painting from nature. Harper's Weekly sent him and Paul Frenzeny across the United States to illustrate the West.

Henríquez's career lasted more than six decades. He specialized in painting on copper and often used European prints.

Han Gan became celebrated at the Tang court for his paintings of horses. The imperial stables housed animals from across Asia, associated with military power and courtly prestige.

Guo Xi worked at the Northern Song court in the eleventh century. His landscapes connect the arrangement of mountains with seasons, weather and atmospheric conditions.

Little is known about Qu Ding. The catalogue of Emperor Huizong's collection records three summer landscapes by him.

The eighth emperor of the Song dynasty was a painter and patron of the court academy. Under Huizong, artists studied plants and the behaviour of birds closely.

Li Gonglin belonged to China's educated elite. His painting was closely connected with poetry, music and calligraphy.

Ma Yuan belonged to the fourth generation of a family of painters. He served in the Southern Song academy in Hangzhou.

Xia Gui worked within the Southern Song landscape tradition. In the Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang, familiar places were associated with poetic titles and changing weather.

Zhao Mengjian belonged to the Song imperial family and practised calligraphy and painting. He became particularly known for his narcissus paintings.

After the Mongol conquest of Hangzhou in 1276, Qian Xuan remained loyal to the fallen Song dynasty and did not enter the new rulers' service.

Zhao Mengfu, a descendant of the Song imperial family, was a calligrapher, painter and connoisseur. In 1286 Kublai Khan recruited him for service in Dadu.

This scroll brings together paintings by three generations of the Zhao family. Zhao Mengfu made his section in 1296; works by Zhao Yong and Zhao Lin were joined to it.

Wu Zhen lived in relative seclusion and was little known during his lifetime. Ming critics later included him among the Four Great Masters of the Yuan.

Ni Zan painted landscapes with sparse, dry brushwork and broad areas of unmarked paper. His restrained manner developed during troubled times.

Dong Qichang was a painter, theorist and collector. He regarded the study of earlier masters as a foundation for renewing painting.

Wu Bin painted landscapes and Buddhist figures in the late Ming period. In Sixteen Luohans he drew on older models and gave the saints unusual faces and bodies.