Roswell M. Shurtleff began his career in a New Hampshire architect's office in 1857 after study at Dartmouth College. The following year he spent time in Buffalo doing lithographic work, moving in 1859 to Boston to draw for a wood-engraving establishment and study at the Lowell Institute. Shurtleff relocated to New York in 1860 and enrolled in the National Academy's Antique School. The Civil War interrupted his training, however, and he joined New York's 99th Regiment, becoming the first Union officer to be shot and taken prisoner. After eight months in Confederate hospitals and prisons, he returned to New York where he continued his study in the Academy Schools.
Shurtleff married Clara E. Halliday of Hartford, CT in 1867. Soon after, he moved to Hartford and opened a studio for several years. At this time, he began to paint in Oil, concentrating on animal pictures. By the early 1870s, Shurtleff was back in New York. The focus of his paintings became the Adirondack forest region, where he began spending time during summers. In 1881 he bought land in Keene Valley in the Adirondacks. Four years later he built a house and studio there and was usually in residence six months a year. He continued to paint the scenes around his property until his death.
