One of America's best known history painters, Peter Rothermel suffered diminished professional reputation when the public's taste turned away from dramatically charged historical and imagined events.

He was born in Nescopeck, Pennsylvania, probably in 1817, but there is confusion because his birth date has also been given as 1814 and 1812. He was first trained as a surveyor and then as a sign painter and spent much time studying the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He was a student of John Rowson Smith and Bass Otis, but later disavowed Otis as being a bad influence on his work.

He became a portrait painter in Philadelphia, but turned to history painting, which was then considered the most worthy subj...