As the son of the deputy-sheriff of Morrisville, New York, Matteson's earliest exposure to art took place in a cell at the local jail. By supplying one Abe Antone, an Indian artist incarcerated on a murder charge, with art supplies, the young Matteson was permitted to sketch and carve with the "master". His interest in art thus established, he studied next with an itinerant silhouette-limner. For a short time he travelled throughout western New York taking likenesses. During this period he also worked in a drug store and as a tailor's apprentice. After a temporary diversion into acting, he decided to study art seriously.
Matteson initiated his formal training under Alvah Bradish ( ) with whom he studied briefly at Cazenovia, NY. He then moved to New York City, where he took classes at the National Academy from 1841 until 1845. During the next ten years he became immensely popular as a painter of patriotic subjects. Many of his works, such as the Spirit of '76 and The First Prayer of Congress were circulated widely as prints. Matteson was also active as an illustrator, his depictions of both national (ABG: your ?? mark) and genre subjects appearing in such journals as the Columbian Magazine and Brother Jonathan. He also wrote critical reviews for local newspapers which, according to one obiturary, "gave the Academicians of those days some caustic lashes the salutory sting of which wes received with a grim smile [not like that which several of us swallow the bitter mess of some modern 'Cook']."(ABG: Your "[]" marks.)
Matteson purchased a home in Sherburne, NY in 1850, continuing to supply the eager audience for his work through his New York City dealer William Schaus. During the early 1850s he was also active as a teacher, one of his most famous pupils being Elihu Vedder, who was eighteen (ABG: your question: what year?) studied under Matteson at the age of eighteen. He was elected a member of the State Legislature in 1855. Matteson began to concern himself more with his role as public servant. In addition to holding a seat in the State Assembly, he served as Chief Engineer and Foreman of the local fire department and in 1865 was elected President of the Chenango Agricultural Society, and his art production underwent a slow decline. Following his death, he was described in the Academy's minutes as:
a constant and popular contributor to the [NAD] Exhibitions especially of American figure and genre subjects, a department to which at the time but few of our artists turned their attention, his works fairly meeting the public taste and requirement...He took great interest in the growth of his profession and was an active worker in all measures and efforts for its advancement...his life and works will fill an honorable page in the history of American Art.
