Robert Cutler Hinckley

[2] In his twenty years there, he trained from 1864 to 1884 under master portraitist Charles Auguste Emile Durand, alongside John Singer Sargent.

Begun in Paris in 1882, it depicts the first successful public demonstration of ether anesthesia; it is now on display at UMass Chan Medical School's Lamar Soutter library.

[5] His work was described thusly: Mr. Hinckley has creditably achieved what neither our American artists nor authors seem very fond of attempting--a carefully sustained and elaborate historical study.

The approval of the dissolute old Roman reclining with his paramour on the right, is strikingly expressive of a general fondness for cruelty and rapine, while there is the animus of a personal hatred in the elan with which Thais raises her threatening torch on high The figure of Alexander is well-poised and his attitude highly dramatic, but I like best the expressive face and eloquent action of the woman in the central foreground.

Admiration, affright and jealousy are marvelously mingled The picture was shown in last year's Salon and in the National Academy Exhibition this season"[5]In 1884, after returning from Europe, Hinckley established a studio in Washington, D.C. where he was known for portraits of eminent Americans.