Walter M. Brackett (1823-1919), the younger brother of sculptor Edward A. Brackett, was born in Unity, Maine. He spent most of his professional career in Boston, Massachusetts, exhibiting his work at the Boston Athenaeum, the Apollo Association, and the National Academy of Design. He was one of the artists engaged by Secretary of War William W. Belknap in the early 1870s to execute portraits of the line of succession of the secretaries, and he painted the portraits of Timothy Pickering, Samuel Dexter, William Eustis, and Henry Dearborn, all prominent residents of his native state. His portrait of Maj. Gen. Henry Dearborn serves the dual purpose of representing a senior Army official who was both the senior officer and senior civilian, and is reproduced from the Army Art Collection.