Richard Caton Woodville (30 April 1825 – 13 August 1855) was an American artist from Baltimore who spent his professional career in Europe, after studying in Düsseldorf under the direction of Karl Ferdinand Sohn.

[1] In his short career he produced fewer than 20 paintings; but they were well known in their time through exhibition and prints and have remained prominent in the canon of American painters.

[2] At the age of 20, he left Baltimore with his new wife, Mary Theresa Buckler, for the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany, where he was formally enrolled for one year.

Widely acclaimed by American critics, this painting deals with the "low life" environment of oyster cellars and marginal characters that frequented them.

This subscription-based organization, which published the monthly Bulletin of the American Art-Union, held popular exhibitions in New York each year.

He left behind his second wife, Antoinette Marie Schnitzler and their two children, including artist Richard Caton Woodville Jr. who became a famous British battle scene painter.

[1] The Baltimore based Walters Art Museum holds a number of Woodville paintings in its permanent collection, including Politics in an Oyster House, Old '76 and Young '48 and The Sailor's Wedding.