He returned to Charlestown after college. Despite Latest Mailing Database his wishes to be a painter and encouragement from the famed American painter Washington Allston, Morse's parents wanted him to be a bookseller's Latest Mailing Database apprentice. He became a clerk for Daniel Mallory, his father's Boston book publisher. Trip to England A year later, Morse's parents relented and let him sail to England with Allston. He attended the Royal Academy of Arts in London and received instruction from Pennsylvania-born Latest Mailing Database painter Benjamin West. He met poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, several Latest Mailing Database accomplished painters, and American actor John Howard Payne through Morse. He adopted a "romantic" painting style, featuring heroic characters and Latest Mailing Database epic events. In 1812, his plaster statuette "The Dying Hercules" won a gold medal at the Adelphi Society of Arts exhibition in London, and his painting of the same subject received critical acclaim at the Royal Academy. family Morse returned to the U.S. in 1815 and opened an art studio in Boston. The next year, seeking Latest Mailing Database portrait commissions to earn a living, he traveled to New Hampshire and met Lucretia Pickering Walker, 16, in Concord. They soon became engaged Latest Mailing Database During this period, Morse created some of his most notable works, including Latest Mailing Database portraits of military leader Marquis de Lafayette and President George Washington. On Sept. 29, 1818, Lucretia Walker and Morse were married in Concord. Morse spent the winter in Charleston, South Carolina, and received many portrait commissions there. The couple Latest Mailing Database spent the rest of the year painting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.