He has been called the "painter of presidents", because he painted portraits of Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Herbert Hoover.

He moved to Paris, and had a studio there by 1893, just two doors from the Hungarian painter Mihály Munkácsy, on the Boulevard Malesherbes, and began his studies with Léon Bonnat, Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Alfred Philippe Roll.

[6] He was particularly impressed with and influenced by the work of the portrait painter Carolus-Duran and the mural painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes[4] Torrey returned to New York in the spring of 1897, still retaining his Paris studio, where he spent six months of each year until 1906,[6] He gave an exhibition at the Waldorf-Astoria and in the fall of 1897, he started leasing a studio at 543 Fifth Avenue.

[6] The portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt was painted for Secretary of the Navy Paul Morton, who wished to present it to the city of Chicago, his former home.

He hosted lavish dinners and vaudeville entertainment for guests such as the opera singers Geraldine Farrar, Antonio Scotti and Enrico Caruso.

Torrey extensively studied the early English portraitists, whose influence is manifest in his glowing colour, and in the decorative disposition of his draperies.

[6] At the turn of the 19th century, he was acclaimed as a "fair draughtsman" with a "delicate, pretty color scheme",[4] with his chief merit lying in refinement.