Among the artists whose notice it attracted was John Trumbull.[3] In 1839 his name was listed on the register of students at the National Academy of Design, but he is known to have already developed a reputation as an artist. In 1846 he traveled to Europe for a year of study, prompting a critic for the Literary World to observe that he had already seen "no small degree of success as a painter of portraits in fancy dresses, with an occasional fancy face."[2] He returned to Europe for other painting trips during his career; on one of these a copy of Guido Reni's Aurora which he painted in the Palazzo Borghese for a New York client won praise from the Princess Borghese.[1]