John Wollaston

John Wollaston was born in London. His father was a portrait painter, and he trained with “a noted drapery painter in London.” In 1749 he went to New York City, where he began painting fashionable, British-style portraits for wealthy Americans. Wollaston stayed in the colonies for 18 years, painting portraits in New York, Philadelphia, Annapolis, Virginia, and Charleston, making him the most widely traveled painter in colonial America.