Born in Kewanee, Illinois, Richard Estes became a New York and Maine based artist, earning a reputation for photo-realist painting after working as a commercial artist.
He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1952 to 1956 and then spent ten years in publishing and advertising in New York and in Spain.
By 1966, he had saved enough money to paint full time, and two years later had his first solo exhibition in New York where he has also exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. In 1971, he earned a National Council for the Arts Fellowship.