He was notable for his famous historical painting Washington Crossing the Delaware. It is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, New York.
At the age of twenty-five he had earned enough to take himself to Dsseldorf for a course of art study at the royal academy. Almost immediately he began painting historical subjects, his first work, Columbus before the Council of Salamanca was purchased by the Dsseldorf Art Union.
In 1860 he was commissioned by the United States Congress to decorate a stairway in the Capitol building at Washington, DC, for which he painted a large composition, Westward the Staf of Empire takes its Way.
Late in life, he became a member of the National Academy of Design.
He died in Washington, D.C.