Marcus A. Waterman was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1834. He became a painter of good reputation but it is thought he had no formal education. However, he may have received informal instruction in California where he associated with Thomas Hill, a painter of the Yosemite Valley, and well-known landscapist William Morris Hunt.

Although he graduated from Brown University in 1857, he apparently did not study art. He painted in New York City, after graduation, until 1874, moving then to Boston. He was a great traveler, seeming to prefer exotic, desolate locale; he painted everything from Vermont wilderness to Cape Cod shore, Europe to North Africa.

Of him it was said he had two remarkable gifts. He had a photographic memor...