Junius Brutus Stearns

Junius Brutus Stearns was born in Arlington, Vermont on July 2, 1810 and moved to New York to pursue a career as a painter. He studied at the National Academy of Design in New York and became an Academician there in 1849. He exhibited both at the Academy and at the Apollo Association (later the American Art-Union). After his return from studies in Europe from 1849 to 1850, he was Recording Secretary of the Academy from 1851 to 1865. He was primarily known as a portrait painter, but later went on to paint a number of famous large scale history paintings, such as the series on the life of George Washington. He died in Brooklyn, New York on September 18, 1885.