Born in France, Peter Grain, Sr. came to America by 1815, the year in which his son Peter, Jr., was born in Maryland. Grain, Sr., was a portrait, miniature, landscape and scene painter, and was active in Richmond, Charleston, New York, and Boston. By 1850 he had settled his family in Philadelphia, where he was last recorded in 1853. Grain, Sr., had four children: Peter, Jr., Caroline, Ellen, and George. Both of his sons became artists.