Charles Frederick Kimball (1831–1903) was born in Monmouth, Maine, the youngest of thirteen children in a family of Portland architects and builders. He grew up in Portland, where he studied with local artist Charles O. Cole and later formed a close friendship with landscape painter John Bradley Hudson. The two artists frequently traveled together on sketching trips, working directly from nature. While studying with portrait and landscape painter John Greenleaf Cloudman, Kimball met Cloudman’s daughter Annie, whom he married in 1863.

After his marriage, Kimball worked with his brother as an expert stair builder and cabinetmaker, choosing not to rely on painting for income in order to avoid commercializing his art, though he continued to paint throughout his life. His style evolved from early Hudson River School influences to elements of the French Barbizon School and later Impressionism. Kimball worked in charcoal, graphite, and etching, and was deeply involved in Portland’s art community as a founding member and early president of the Portland Society of Art, as well as a member of the “Brush’uns” sketching group. He died on January 28, 1903.