Charles Lewis Fussell

Fussell lived near Philadelphia for most of his life and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with his close friend, mentor, and colleague, Thomas Eakins.

He was the oldest child of a large Quaker family and attended Central High School in Philadelphia, where he was classmates with Thomas Eakins and William Sartain.

At the advice of Rothermel, Fussell moved to Greeley, Colorado, in 1870 to paint the Rocky Mountains, while researching the possible climatic benefits for his father's medical condition.

Fussell painted scenes at Crow's Hill, Flatbush, Fort Hamilton, Sheepshead Bay, Rockaway, and other rural areas threatened by imminent urbanization.

His exhibits consisted primarily of landscape paintings, but his early work also included genre subject and still life pieces.