Edwin White (1817-1877)
The Fisher Boy, 1840
Oil on canvas, 30 x 22 1/2”
Signed and dated lower right

White was an early genre and history painter. He was born in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and apparently had no formal art training until he came to Hartford at age 18 and studied with Philip Hewins, a portrait painter. Within a few months he had a commission to paint a Madonna in Norwalk. He opened a studio in Bridgeport in 1840, the year The Fisher Boy was painted, and began exhibiting at the National Academy of Design. Convinced that he needed to learn more, he moved to New York soon after. Later he went abroad to absorb the work of the European masters.