John Henry Brown’s career began in Philadelphia in 1845, where he painted most of his sitters. In 1860 he traveled on commission to Springfield, Illinois, to paint Abraham Lincoln; other notable sitters during his career included Confederate general Stonewall Jackson. Brown often preferred to take daguerreotypes of his sitters and use those as guides for his miniatures, rather than having the person sit for him. He claimed it was easier to work from a small image than from a life-size model.