William Matthew Prior was born in Bath, Maine, in 1806. He may have served an apprenticeship with Charles Codman (1800-1842), a Portland painter of signs, portraits, landscapes and seascapes. Prior advertised in 1827 and 1828 in the Maine Inquirer that he did oil painting, bronzing, oil gilding, varnishing, and drawings of machinery; he also restored paintings. In 1829 the artist married Rosamond Clark Hamblin, a member of an artistic family, and they moved to Portland sometime between 1831 and 1834, and to Boston in 1839. In about 1846 Prior moved to his "Painting Garret," at 36 Trenton Street in Boston; he lived and worked there until his death in 1873. He traveled to Baltimore in the early 1850s, but most of his work was executed in New England. While primarily known as a portrait painter, the artist also produced landscape and portraits on glass. His works range from naïve-looking portraits to more sophisticated compositions, and he priced his paintings accordingly.