Born in Philadelphia. Studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, then in Europe 1866-1870, notably with Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris. Returned to the Pennsylvania Academy to teach starting in 1876, where his emphasis was on classical techniques of working from life, including use of nude models which brought puritanical criticism against him at the time.
Regarded as one of finest realist painters and portraitists of his day, and one of the top American artists.