 After apprenticeships as a bookbinder and dentist, his first employment was as a dentist in Hartford, but he soon abandoned it for painting and (after learning that he was color-blind) sculpture.In 1844 he studied at the National Academy of Design's antique class in New York City, from 1845-1848 directed the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, contracting a severe case of smallpox circa 1847, then studied for another year in the National Academy of Design and sailed for Europe.From 1851 onwards he lived in Rome and died in Naples of bronchitis.