Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait

Born in Liverpool, England, Arthur Tait became America’s first important sporting artist. In England, he trained as a lithographer for Agnews, an art dealer in Manchester, and taught himself to paint by copying works at the Royal Institute. He also assisted American Indian painter George Catlin, with his traveling Indian gallery that he had brought to England, and Tait was impressed with Catlin’s subject matter and skill.

In 1850, Tait came to America to pursue his interest in wildlife and hunting, sports that were closed to the public in aristocratic England. He worked primarily from a studio in New York City and never got west of Chicago.