Born c. 1813 (or 1823) in Bulgaria. Studied art in Paris. Immigrated to the U.S. with the English ethnologist William Blackmore and his expeditionary party, about 1845. Was in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington during the 1860s. Lived in Washington, D.C., 1876–99. Worked as an artist for the Smithsonian. Died August 8, 1899, in Washington, D.C.

Andrew J. Cosentino and Henry H. Glassie The Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800–1915 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Museum of American Art, 1983)