Robert Vonnoh, born in Hartford, Connecticut, and raised in Boston, traveled to France to study with the teaching team of Gustave Boulanger and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre at the Académie Julian, returning to America to teach in Boston and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His teaching methods remained closely aligned with the academic principles he learned at the Julian, while his own paintings were heavily influenced by the color theories of the French Impressionists he encountered on his frequent visits to Grez-sur-Loing near the forest of Fontainebleau. A painter of over 500 portraits, Vonnoh also painted numerous landscapes and figure works with a loaded brush and brilliant palette reflecting the influence of his contemporaries.