Portraitist Howard Hildebrandt was born in the small town of Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), where his natural interest in people was evident from an early age. He attended the National Academy of Design in New York; the Julian Academy under Benjamin-Constant and J. P. Laurens in Paris; and was one of a small number of foreigners permitted regular enrollment as an eleve at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

Like John Singer Sargent, Hildebrandt took great care with his backgrounds as he considered them an important part of the portrait. He demonstrated an imaginative and restrained use of color. He painted some outdoor scenes, and was fond of doing outdoor and indoor portraits. One fishing scene, shown at the Herron Art Gall...