Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait is known as a one of America’s foremost animal and sporting scene painters of the nineteenth-century. He was born near Liverpool, England on August 5, 1819. In his youth he moved to Manchester, where he worked for an art dealer and learned the techniques of lithography. In 1938, Tait had gained a rising reputation as a lithographer and illustrator for popular magazines. During this time, Tait met George Catlin, an American Indian painter, and assisted him with his traveling Indian Gallery in France and England. In 1850, Tait decided to move to New York and summer in the Adirondacks, where he painted many realistic nature scenes. His realistic hunting scenes were reproduced in print form and distributed by Currier & Ives publishing company which became staples of American pictorial representation. In 1854, Tait became an associate of the National Academy of Design where he exhibited his work for fifty-three years. Tait’s style was consistent, and he had a long and industrious career until his death in 1905. Tait’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Shelburne Museum, Vermont; Amon Carter Museum; Brooklyn Museum; Yale University Art Gallery; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Addison Gallery of American Art; Adirondack Museum; Tate Gallery, London; National Museum of Racing, Saratoga Springs, NY; Victoria & Albert Museum and more.