Edward Dalton Marchant

Edward Dalton Marchant, also known as Edward D. Marchant and E. D. Marchant, was an American artist. He was born in Edgartown, Massachusetts in 1806. Largely self-taught, Marchant began his career as a house painter, establishing a portrait studio in Edgartown by the mid-1820s.
Marchant is known to have studied briefly with artist Gilbert Stuart in Boston in 1825, familiarizing himself with the artist's style. Marchant began an early, peripatetic career by late 1826 advertising his services in a Charleston, South Carolina newspaper, but returned to Edgartown in 1828-1829. He would soon after relocate to Worcester, Massachusetts, painting some of the city's prominent citizens. Marchant was active in New York City after 1832, completing many portraits of well-to-do merchants and political leaders during the 1830s and 1840s; in addition, he completed commissions in several Ohio cities as well as in Nashville and New Orleans, before settling in Philadelphia in 1854 where he would remain for another thirty years. Although mostly known for his portraits in oil, Marchant also created miniatures. He was elected to a number of arts academies and exhibited regularly during his lifetime.