Born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1882, Harleston graduated from Avery Normal Institute in 1900 and Atlanta University in 1904. The following year, he left Atlanta to study at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from 1906 to 1912, under Edmund Tarbell and Frank W. Benson. He returned to Charleston in 1913 to help his father manage the family funeral parlor and gradually resumed artistic pursuits in his free time. In 1920, Harleston married the photographer Elise Forrest and, in 1922, they opened a portrait studio in the city. By the mid-1920s, Harleston's reputation as an artist was firmly established and, until his untimely death in 1931, he executed numerous portrait commissions, figure studies, and landscapes. Best known for his portraits, he painted his subjects in a direct, realistic style that combined his solid academic training with an interest in evocative light and rich brushwork. RS

Biography courtesy of The Charleston Renaissance Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/charleston