(1824-1901) John Heyl Raser was born in Mobile, Alabama. He studied art in Plainfield, Connecticut, as a boy, but his interest in chemistry and science led him to become a chemist. In 1851 he moved to Reading, Pennsylvania, where he opened two successful drug stores and painted as an avocation. He was involved in the organization of the Reading Society of Natural Sciences in 1869. In 1871 Raser sold his stores to devote himself to painting, creating portraits, marine scenes, still lifes, and landscapes, for which he is best known. He made a sketching tour of Europe in 1875, returning to Reading, where he established a studio on North Sixth Street until 1884, when he moved to Philadelphia where he opened a new studio on Walnut Street. He was a member of the Art Exhibition Gallery and the Philadelphia Art Club, and exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Raser painted in the Catskills at Haines Falls and Pine Hill Valley; along the Schuylkill River; and in the Connecticut River Valley. He was a colleague of landscapist Frank Devlan and together the two artists taught and influenced a younger group of painters including Ben Austrian, Amos Gable, Edward Hafer, Jacob Miesse, Edward Howell and Christopher Shearer. Raser was a self-taught musician, reportedly playing as many as fifteen instruments. He died in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1901.

Biography courtesy of Roger King Gallery of Fine Art, www.antiquesandfineart.com/rking