He studied under sculptor Shobal Vail Clevenger and opened an art studio sponsored by wealthy horticulturist Nicholas Longworth.

He chafed under criticism from Longworth and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he befriended poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and painter Washington Allston.

[2] In 1841, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and became friends with poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and painter Washington Allston.

[1] He served as a major[5] on the staff of General Lew Wallace[6] and gave public performances of his war songs to rally the Union troops.

[4] After one such performance, future president General James A. Garfield wrote to Read and thanked him for "the pleasure of hearing your words".

It was printed in the New York Tribune on election day 1864 on the front page and may have impacted the margin of victory for Abraham Lincoln.

[8] His portrait work also includes Robert Browning,[9] Joseph Harrison Jr.,[10] Abraham Lincoln, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Alfred Tennyson, and the Queen of Naples.

Over the course of his career, he produced 60 significant paintings from studios in the United States, Düsseldorf, Florence, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Rome.

[11] Read also wrote a prose romance, The Pilgrims of the Great St. Bernard, and several books of poetry, including The New Pastoral, The House by the Sea, Sylvia, and A Summer Story.

He returned to the United States in 1872 but contracted pneumonia during the journey[8] and died soon after arriving at port in New York City.