1835-1900. William Stanley Haseltine was born in Philadelphia, the son of a successful merchant and when he was fifteen he began his studies with the landscape painter Paul Weber (1823-1916), a student of the German school of painting of the romantic spirit that was coupled with a disciplined drawing style. Haseltine attended the University of Pennsylvania and went on sketching trips in the countryside along the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers. In 1852, he attended Harvard University and graduating in 1854. Upon graduation, Haseltine traveled to Europe with his mentor and teacher Weber,. stopping in Paris and then went to Dusseldorf to meet Weber. Haseltine settled in Dusseldorf, along with other American artists and for the next three years his fellow-artists included Worthington Whittredge, Emanuel Leutze, and Albert Bierstadt. Haseltine, Whittredge, and Bierstadt accompanied Leutze on a sketching trip of the Rhine, Ahr, and Nahve Rivers. The following year, they all traveled to Italy, ending up in Rome, sketching in Campagna. When Haseltine returned to America in the fall of 1858, he took a studio in New York and married Helen Lane, a musician whom he had met in Rome. From 1858 through 1860, Haseltine exhibited his landscapes at the National Academy of Design and in 1860 was elected an associate of the NAD. He moved into the Tenth Street Studio Building in 1859 and was there with many artists whom he had studied with in Dusseldorf. His workspace was hung with drawings that depicted his travels in Naples and Salerno and Campagna, along with mountain views of Rome. There were scenes of Venice and souvenirs of his Italian trip were everywhere. The majority of Haseltine's early works were landscapes including Italian coastal scenes and some northeastern American shore subjects. He was precise in his rendering of his subjects and this earned him critical acclaim.