Christopher Shearer

Christopher High Shearer was a prolific American painter in Berks County, Pennsylvania, known primarily for his large landscape paintings.
Christopher Shearer was born May 18, 1846, in Reading, Pennsylvania to Christopher and Catherine Shearer. As a boy, Shearer spent time in the studios of artists Francis Daniel Devlan and John Heyl Raser. At age 18, Christopher showed an interest in painting professionally, and became a student of both Devlan and Raser. His father helped him by building him a studio in the backyard of his farm in Shearertown. At the age of 21, Shearer opened his own studio in Reading and was very successful in selling his works locally. By age 27 Shearer was nationally recognized artist.
He later traveled to Europe, abandoning his wife Sallie Shearer and their sons, and studied in Düsseldorf and Munich. Shearer exhibited his works at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and at an art exhibition celebrating the United States Centennial in 1876. In 1878, on a return trip to Germany, he was awarded a Gold Medal by the Düsseldorf School of Art. He also exhibited many of his works in a studio he opened in Reading in 1883.