At age thirteen, he went to Boston, Massachusetts to work for a grocer, then tried selling shoes before giving up on this also and returning home.

Fuller then returned home once again, entered Deerfield Academy, and began to paint in his spare time.

He joined his half-brother Augustus as an itinerant painter, and enjoyed some success painting portraits in northern New York.

In January 1860 he began five month a tour of Europe with friends during which they visited London, Paris, Florence, Rome, and Venice.

For the next fifteen years, he worked the farm and painted in his spare time in a studio converted form a carriage house.

His work continued to enjoy success until his death at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts on March 21, 1884, of kidney disease.