After a difficult, straightened childhood, he married Caroline Woodruff and moved to Pittsburgh with his family, and then Northampton. A succesful trip to Europe followed, and a brief attempt to settle with his family in Glasgow, which was aborted due to a general financial panic, so the rest of his career centred on Boston, where he had a steady clientele for portraits.
He painted a portrait of Whistler's father, now in The Hunterian, University of Glasgow (GLAHA 54134).
'Harding, Chester', Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press. 'Chester Harding, Wikipedia. 'Harding, Chester', National Gallery of Art, website.