Edward Savage grew up in Princeton, Massachusetts, and began his career as a goldsmith. Primarily self-taught as a painter, he may have studied briefly with the American artist Benjamin West while in London in 1791. Savage's work is uneven in quality, and he does not have a strong reputation as a draftsman. He is perhaps best known for his oil paintings of George Washington, and as an engraver in stipple and mezzotint.