Harold Matthews Brett is known for his illustrations and paintings of nostalgic New England scenes. He grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, and studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston under Philip Hale and Frank Benson. Later, he moved to New York to study at the Art Students League with Walter Appleton Clark, H. Siddons Mowbray, and Kenyon Cox.

By then a well-trained artist, Brett went to Wilmington, Delaware, in 1906, to study further under the famous illustrator Howard Pyle. He was soon able to make his professional debut in Harpers Weekly, and his work began to appear in most of the national magazines. Eventually, Brett moved to Chatham on Cape Cod, and for severa...