Charles Deas Known as a painter of dramatic and romantic western scenes, he was born in Philadelphia to a family of career military people including his grandfather, Ralph Izard, a Revolutionary War hero. It was expected that Charles would be a military man, but he grew to prefer painting trips in the Hudson River Valley to sitting in classes at West Point Academy. In the mid-1830s, he studied briefly at the National Academy of Design, earning a reputation for sporting and domestic genre scenes. He first exhibited at the Academy in 1838 and became an elected Associate in 1839. In 1840, he traveled West, having seen an exhibition of Indian paintings of George Catlin. He also visited his brother who was a military officer at Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. He traveled all over the upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and throughout the Platte River region. He settled in St. Louis for nearly 10 years where he had considerable following as well as back East where he continued to send his paintings. They were regularly exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Boston Athenaeum, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Many of his works were made into engravings, which also enhanced his reputation. Sadly, his career was cut short by insanity in the 1850s, and he spent the last 16 years of his life in a mental institution. His last paintings were depictions of human sadness and despair.

Biography with permission from AskArt.com

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