Alfred Cornelius Howland, a tonalist painter of light-filled, cheerful story-telling landscapes and genre scenes, was born in 1838 in Walpole, New Hampshire. In 1855, he graduated from Walpole Academy and then went to Boston, where he found employment as an engraver and studied drawing and lithography with Max Eppendorff and Paul Schulze.

In 1856, he moved to New York City where again he worked as an engraver and also took antique and life classes at the National Academy of Design.

In 1860, he began three years of study in Germany; a year was spent with Andreas Muller at the Dusseldorf Academy and a year and a half was in the Dusseldorf studio of Albert Flamm. Then Howland went to Paris, where he studied for two years with Em...