Gerald Sinclair Hayward abandoned farming to pursue a career in art, receiving his early training at the Royal Academy in London from 1879 to 1883. His talent and popularity led to an exhibition of his work in New York in 1899, which spurred the revival of miniature painting in America and the founding of the American Society of Miniature Painters. Hayward was said to have received the highest number of royal commissions, from the ruling families of Britain, Germany, and Russia. In the United States, he painted Theodore Roosevelt, William K. Vanderbilt, and J. P. Morgan, among others.