painting by limiting entries to depictions of the American War of Independence", decided there were no paintings of sufficient quality to merit a 1st or second place, and awarded Trego 3rd place for his painting of George Washington and his troops called The March to Valley Forge. Trego sued the Academy on the grounds that if his painting was the best overall, it should receive first place (and he should get the $3,000 prize money). In 1886, he lost the case, with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling the jury was well within their rights under the contract of the exhibit to award prizes as they saw fit. North Wales studio After leaving the Academy, Trego lived in North Wales, Pennsylvania, with his mother and father. Except for trips abroad, Trego would live in North Wales for the rest of his life, working in a studio behind his house. He used the town residents, their horses, and the surrounding landscape as models and backdrops for his paintings. Trego was becoming well known for the accuracy of his military depictions as well as the honest, sometimes brutal realism, especially in his Civil War subjects The Civil War works were well received and Trego had much success selling paintings during that time. Paris In 1887, he went to Paris to study at the Académie Julian under the French academic painters Tony Robert-Fleury and William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Trego studied at the French museums while he was there and enjoyed the Paris night life with other Pennsylvania Academy alumni such as Robert Henri, Augustus B. Koopman, Henry McCarter, and Frederick J. Waugh. Trego also participated in the Paris Salons of 1889 and 1890, gaining some recognition for his 1889 submission, a military painting titled The End of the Charge of von Bredow’s Brigade at Rezonville depicting German cavalry units charge against French during the Franco-Prussian War. One French writer thought this work put Trego on par with the famous French academic military artist, Édouard Detaille. On his ocean voyage home from Paris in 1890, Trego returned to America not only with new found knowledge of French academic painting, he also returned with a French fiancée. But in a sad and very public event on board ship, the "handsome French girl" (as reported in the newspapers of the time) switched her affections to fellow Académie Julian student James R. Fisher. When they arrived in Philadelphia the news