If the saying that those nations are the happiest that have no history is true of men, Mr. Fuller’s life must be regarded as exceptionally fortunate.  Considered by itself, it was quiet and uneventful, and had little to excite general interest; but when viewed in its relation to the practice of his art, it is found to be full of eloquent suggestions to all who, like him, have been appointed to win success through suffering.  The narrative of his experience comprises two great periods—­the preparation, which covered thirty-four years, and the achievement, to the enjoyment of which less than eight years were permitted.  The first period is subdivided into two, of which one embraces eighteen years, from the time when, at the age of twenty, he entered upon the study of his art, to his retirement from the world to the exile of his Deerfield farm; the other including sixteen years of seclusion, until, at the age of fifty-four, he came forth again to proclaim a new revelation.  The first part of his career may be dismissed without any extended consideration.  Its record consists of an almost unrelieved account of struggle, indifferent success, and lack of appreciation and encouragement, in the cities of Boston and New York.  In Boston he appeared as the student, rather than the producer of works, and laid the foundation of his style in observation of the paintings of Stuart, Copley, Allston, and Alexander,—­all excellent models upon which to base a practice, although destined to show little of their influence upon the pictures which he painted in the maturity of his power.  It is not to be doubted, however, that all these men, and particularly Stuart, made an impression upon him which he was never afterward wholly able to conceal.  We may see even in some of his latest works, under his own peculiar manner, suggestions of Stuart, particularly in portraits of women, which in pose and expression, and to a considerable degree in color, show much of that dignity and composure which so distinguish the female heads of our greatest portrait-painter.  He always admired Stuart, and in his later years spoke much of him, with strong appreciation for his skill in describing character, and the refined taste which is such a marked feature of his best manner.

His work in Boston made no particular impression upon the public mind, and after five years’ trial of it he removed to New York, where he joined that brilliant circle of painters and sculptors which, with its followers, has made one of the strongest impressions, if not the most valuable or permanent, upon the art of America.  During his residence in that city he devoted himself almost exclusively to portrait-painting, in which he developed a manner more distinguished for conventional excellence than any particular individuality.  It was remarked of him, however, that he was disposed, even at this time, to seek to present the thought and disposition of his subjects more strongly than their merely physical features, and among his principal