A Legacy of Light and Innocence: The Life of Sturtevant J. Hamblen The history of nineteenth-century American portraiture is often defined by grand, sweeping narratives of heroism or landscape, yet within the intimate confines of a studio in Boston, Sturtevant J. Hamblen was quietly perfecting a different kind of mastery. Born in Bath, England, in 1817, Hamblin carried with him a profound ancestral connection to the visual arts. His grandfather, George Hamblin, was a skilled painter and glazer, a lineage that provided the young artist with an early education in the fundamental mechanics of l…