Benjamin Foster was born and spent his childhood in North Anson, Maine, along with his artist brother, Charles Foster (1850-1931) . He moved to New York City in 1870, and worked odd jobs until he could afford to commence formal art training in 1882. He then studied privately with Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849-1921) at the Art Students League, and took lessons in Paris from 1886-1887. With a studio in Manhattan and a home in rural Cornwall, Connecticut, he became known for his bucolic, tonal scenes of the countryside, often drenched in the atmospheric effects of dawn, sunset, or twilight. In addition to painting, he wrote art reviews for the New York Evening Post and the Nation.