Landscape painter Joseph Foxcroft Cole was born in Jay, Maine in 1837, but grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He went to France in 1860, alternating, for several years, study in winter at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and summer with the popular painter of Normandy landscapes, Emile Lambinet. Cole returned to Boston, but yet again in 1865 went back to Paris for further study, working with Charles Jacque. Cole had been influenced by painter William Morris Hunt in his decision to return to Paris.

Hunt, a great believer in the Barbizon School of French painters and the necessity of studying their work, techniques and philosophy, had helped Cole financially in Boston, buying paintings and spreading the word to others who also bought from the...