Thomas Hewes Hinckley

Thomas Hewes Hinckley was born in Milton, Massachusetts in 1813. He was apprenticed to a Philadelphia merchant at fifteen years of age and attended evening art classes in that city instructed by William Mason. Hinckley returned to Milton in 1833 upon the death of his father, Captain Robert Hinckley, and he set up a studio as a portrait and sign painter there, later concentrating on animal paintings. Hinckley stayed for a brief time on Naushon Island, just off the Atlantic Coast, to investigate the deer that lived there. Following his visit, Hinckley continued his studies in the Adirondacks and Moosehead Lake.

In 1851, Hinckley traveled to Europe to research the works of Sir Edwin H. Landseer, as well as those of other English and Flemish masters. In 1870, he made a trip to California to study elk. In addition to animal paintings, Hinckley also created landscape images; he believed that nature was the best instructor and source of knowledge. He died in his hometown in 1896 at the age of 83.