Mathew B. Brady

Mathew Brady (1823–1896) was born in Warren County, New York. While a boy, he met William Page at Saratoga and received lessons in drawing from him. Brady and Page came to New York together about 1839 and Brady began to study with Samuel F. B. Morse. At this time, Morse was experimenting with the newly invented daguerreotype process and Brady worked for a time with Morse on it. Not long after, in 1844, Brady opened a photographic studio on Broadway and met with immediate success. A tireless innovator, by 1850 he was a famous photographer taking pictures of the most eminent personages of his day. His "Gallery of Illustrious Americans," published that year, profoundly influenced Elliott, who found the dramatic light effects and precise detail of photography appealing and often used them in his own works. Brady documented the Civil War in photographs and became wealthy, but he suffered heavy losses in the financial panic of 1873 from which he never recovered. His portrait by Elliott is undated, but when lending it to this Museum in 1895, Brady stated that it was done in 1857.