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Biographies A - G
Biographies H - L

 

McCord, George Herbert
American, 1848-1909
Known for atmospheric marine and landscape paintings in oil, pastel, and watercolor and for black and white drawings, George McCord was born in New York City and remained primarily a resident in Brooklyn although he traveled widely and from 1883 also had a studio in Morristown, New Jersey. He was part of the second generation of Hudson River School painters.

He studied at the Hudson River Institute, the Claverack Academy in Claverack, New York and with Samuel Morse and James Fairman. By 1870, he was exhibiting at the National Academy of Design. He made frequent sketching trips in New England, Canada, Florida, and the Upper Mississippi and participated in one of the exclusive excursions sponsored by the Santa Fe Railroad to paint the Grand Canyon. He was also part of a special Erie Canal painting trip, and was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie to paint the scenery around his castle in Cluny, Scotland. He lived for three years in Venice and later in Paris.

In 1880, he was elected an Associate of the National Academy and had many exhibitions throughout the country. Source: Michael David Zellman, "300 Years of American Art"

McGlynn, Thomas Arnold
American, 1878 - 1966
Born in San Francisco, CA on March 29, 1878. As a youth McGlynn was active with the Columbia Park Boys Club (a precursor of Boy Scouts) for which he contributed artwork and served as editor for their first magazine. At about 13 an accident crushed his back making him dependent on crutches and canes for the rest of his life; however, he never allowed them to interfere with his art career. In 1899 he entered the local School of Design and studied there for many years on scholarships. At that school Arthur Mathews became his mentor and later appointed him chief designer for Mathews' Furniture Shop from 1906-18. He taught for 27 years in the San Francisco school system and for a short time at UC Berkeley before building a home and studio in Pebble Beach in 1938. He died there on June 21, 1966.

McGlynn painted luminist landscapes of the Pacific coast from Canada to Mexico. Member: Carmel AA (pres., 1951-52); SFAA; Bay Region AA; SWA; AAPL; AFA; Society for Sanity in Art; Santa Cruz Art League. Exh: LA Liberty Fair, 1918 (award); Calif. State Fair, 1924, 1939-40; SFAA annuals; Santa Cruz Art League, 1929-57 (awards); Monterey Co. Fair, 1931-40; Carmel AA, 1934, 1949 (solo), 1962 (solo), 1966 (solo); Oakland Art Gallery, 1936-49; Society for Sanity in Art, 1938-46; GGIE, 1939-40; Santa Cruz Co. Fair, 1940, 1955 (1st prizes); AAPL, 1941-46; Art in Nat'l Defense, 1943 (award); CPLH, 1945; SWA, 1948-60; Carmel Museum, 1969; Triton Museum (Santa Clara), 1970 (solo); Monterey Peninsula Museum, 1979 (solo); San Mateo Co. Hist. Society, 1982; Ventura Co. Hist. Museum, 1984, 1985. In: Monterey Peninsula Museum; Monterey Community Hospital; Oakland Museum.
 

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Melrose, Andrew W.
A
merican, 1836-1901
Born in Selkirk, Scotland, Melrose immigrated to the U.S. as a young man and settled in New Jersey.  He is known for his landscapes of his own region, the Hudson Valley, and New York Harbor, as well as from his many travels to varied places, including the Berkshire Hills, the North Carolina mountains, the Shenandoah Valley, Cornwall (England), Lake Killarney (Ireland), and the Tyrolese Alps. He may also have painted in the West. His "New York Harbor and the Battery" (While House Coll.) was widely distributed as a chromolithograph in 1887. Museums holding his works include Museum of Art at Brigham Young University, The New York Historical Society, The Georgia Museum of Art and The White House.

Newell, Hugh
American,  1830-1915
Hugh Newell was born near Belfast, Ireland on October 4th, 1830. He began studying art at the age of nineteen in London at the Royal College of Art. Later he would receive instruction at the Academy of Antwerp and in Paris.

Newell came to the United States in his early twenties and soon settled in Baltimore. As a portrait painter, he achieved a degree of success in a relatively short period of time. He remained in Baltimore until sometime around 1863 at which point he traveled for several years before ending up in Pittsburgh around 1870. For the next nine years he would hold the position of Principal of the Women's School of Design. He then returned to Baltimore where he held posts at the Maryland Institute of Art and Design as well as Johns Hopkins University.

Hugh Newell throughout this time continued to exhibit at the Carnegie Internationale and there is some evidence he returned to Pittsburgh for three years prior to his death in 1915.

Newell's exhibition record also included the Maryland Historical Society, Washington Art Association, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Annual and the National Academy of Design. Two of his paintings are in the Peabody Institute of Baltimore and are represented in the
Westmoreland Museum of American Art.
 

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Peters, Carl William
American, 1897-1980
From Rochester, New York, Carl Peters became an American Scene painter and regionalist. During his growing years where he was raised on a farm near Woodstock, he was exposed to a variety of artistic movements including the Hudson River School painters, tonalist tradition, Ashcan School, American impressionism, and early modernism.

At the age of sixteen, he declared himself an artist and reportedly painted every day for the rest of his life. After attending art school in Rochester, he enrolled in the Art Students League in New York City and spent several summers in Woodstock, New York, studying with Charles Rosen and John F. Carlson, the latter being his most influential teacher.

His forte was snow scenes, which he frequently painted in the Genesee Valley on his family farm near Fairport. He also spent many summers near Cape Ann, Massachusetts. He exhibited widely and won three Hallgarten Prizes from the National Academy of Design, 1926, 1928, and 1932. He was a camouflage artist in the army during World War I, and he also did WPA murals for the Federal Arts Project during the Depression years. In spite of the pervasive modernist movement, he remained true to a realistic style of landscape painting.

His work is in numerous museums including the National Museum of American Art, the Memorial Art Gallery and Strong Museum of Rochester, New York; the Fairport Museum of Fairport, New York; and the Rockport Art Association in Massachusetts.

Source:
"American Art Review", June 1999

 Picknell, George W.
American, 1864-1943

George W. Picknell, born in 1864 in North Springfield, Vermont, was a well-known rural landscape painter. After working in Boston as a young engraver, Picknell left to study art at the Paris Julian Academy in 1887.  During his long tenure in France, Picknell founded the American Artists Association of Paris and regularly exhibited his works of the French countryside at the Salon des Artistes Français. In 1911, Picknell moved back to the United States, settling in Silvermine, Connecticut, where he would finish out his life. While in Silvermine, he founded the Silvermine Artist Guild and the Fine Arts Theatre in Westport, Connecticut. He was a regular participant in major exhibitions in the United States and France where he exhibited paintings at the Pennsylvania Academe of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Society of Independent Artists, and had a one- man exhibition at the Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis (Now the Indianapolis Museum of Art); his French venues included (in addition to the Salon des Artistes Français) exhibitions in Toulouse and Nice. He was a member of the Salmagundi Club, the American Federation of Arts, and the Springfield, Illiinois Art Association. Picknell will always be remembered for his stunningly alluring paintings of rural landscapes of both Connecticut and France

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Poole, Eugene A.
American,  1840-1912
After studying in Philadelphia and Paris, E.A. Poole was first recognized for his sculptures of some of the more famous Civil War officers. By 1887, Poole was in Pittsburgh concentrating his efforts on painting fall landscapes. It is assumed that Poole along with many other area artists, traveled to Scalp Level on sketching trips. Like so many other artists of his era and surrounds, the French Barbizon painters would be among his primary influences. Poole exhibited at some of the finest venues of the day including the Louvre, National Academy of Design and the Corcoran Galleries.

Purdy, Donald Roy
American, 1924-
A still life, figure, landscape and marine painter in Impressionist/Barbizon style, Donald Purdy earned at B.A. Degree at the University of Connecticut and an M.A. degree from Boston University. Memberships include the American Federation of Arts and the Silvermine Guild of Artists, and exhibition venues are the Audubon Artists, Allied Artists of America and Hudson Valley Exhibitions. Mr. Purdy's paintings are included in the permanent collects of the Cincinnati, Columbus and Bridgeport Museums, the Butler Institute and the Walter P. Chrysler Museum. Two Purdy paintings were included in the US State Department's "Art in America" show which toured Europe.

Several "First Awards" have been given to Mr. Purdy in competition with maor artists. Two of the awards, including the Gold Metal of Honor" were from the National Academy in New York City. The noted Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Gallery shows his work along with canvases of Vlaminch, Derain, Pissaro, Monet, Chagall and Picasso. His one-man shows have been seen in New York at the Ruth Butler Galleries, and in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He also showed in Paris at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery.
 

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Schafer, Simon P
American, act. 19th - early 20th centuries
Shafer was active in the last part of the 19th century and was married to Ella M. Shafer, a fruit and floral painter. Simon was noted as a Trump still life painter who resided in Detroit, Michigan and later Earlville, Ohio. He exhibited in numerous galleries with his wife during the last quarter of the 19th century. His listings included Davenport's Art Reference Guide, Who Was Who, Artists of Early Michigan by Gibson and various on-line resources.

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Selby, Joe
American,  1893-1960
An African-American self-taught painter of ships and yachts that docked at the Miami city pier between 1921-1959. In 1905, as a 12-year-old deck hand, he lost a leg in an accident aboard ship. During the 1930s, he crewed again aboard a steamer out of Mobile, AL. But he was primarily a marine artist who, by 1921, concentrated on painting yacht portraits in Miami. Born in Mobile Alabama in 1893, his later addresses included Overton and Miami, Florida.  His works are in private collections along with the Systic Seaport Museum.  References include Davenports Art Reference Guide, Maine Antique Digest (n.d., c. 1990) and various online soureces including askart, artnet, and artprice.

Swedlun, Fred - see Fredericks, Ernest

Steele, Thomas Sedgewick  
American, 1845-1903
Thomas Sedgwick Steele was born at Hartford, CT June 11 1845, and died at Swampscott, MA September 9, 1903. He attended Hartford High School, and after high school was in the jewelry business with his father as a partner. In his youth, he began drawing and painting.

In 1880 and 1882, he published two books on the woods of northern Maine, entitled "Canoe and Camera" and "Paddle and Portage." These books are lavishly illustrated with engravings and wood cuts (some depicting Steele's paintings, others from the photos taken on the trips described). His books were accompanied by an important early map of that region, which was published in at least three different editions, being one of the first maps ever created specifically for canoeists.

In 1887, he gave up jewelry for art full time. In 1890 Steele joined the Boston Art Club. His painting "Net Results" was much noted at the time.

Steele studied art in Paris with Marcius Simonds. Steele traveled to other parts of Europe and North Africa. His exploits in Norway are recounted in the book "A Voyage to Vikingland" (1896) again accompanied by a map and lavish illustrations.

Steele was a member of the National Academy of Design, Salmagundi Club of New York, and numerous genealogical societies. His style was very realistic and his subjects were mostly recently hooked fish and still life scenes. While he dabbled with impressionism and luminism, he believed that these schools of art would not have significant staying power.

Steele was twice married, first to Annie Eliza Smith and second to Sarah Cole Goff, daughter of Rhode Island industrialist Lyman Goff. He apparently had no descendants.

 

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Sutton, Rachel McClelland 
American (1887 - 1982)

Rachel Sutton was born in the Shadyside area of Pittsburgh. Her father was Dr. James H. McClelland, a founder of the Shadyside Hospital. Her mother came from the Bakewell-Pears glass family. Their family home, called Sunnyledge, was designed by H. H. Richardson, architect of the Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh, and is listed by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.

Except for a period of time during her marriage to William S. Sutton, a certified public accountant who died in 1954, Sutton always lived in Sunnyledge. She traveled abroad 16 times, the first when she was only two years old. The artist also traveled widely in the United States and Canada. She never painted when traveling, but stored away impressions which later found expression in her paintings.

Sutton was educated by a German governess until the age of eight. She was then enrolled at Miss Ward's School (at the site of the Church of the Ascension). There she began her art lessons with Miss Stoney. She furthered her education at the preparatory division of the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College), the Masters School at Dobbs Ferry, and graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology with a degree in Fine Arts in 1916. She also attended the Art Student's Leagues in Pittsburgh and New York.

Suttons training resulted in portraits, western Pennsylvania landscapes and views of Pittsburgh from the 1920s through 1940s. The artist also painted many subjects she found in and around her family home. She worked mainly in oil on canvas and in an impressionistic technique and interest in color.

She joined the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh in 1919, often exhibited with them and was awarded several prizes throughout the 61 years of her membership.

In 1945, when Sutton's interest shifted to modern-style watercolor, she joined the Watercolor Society. She was made an honorary member of that society in 1974.

The artist suspended painting in her eighty-second year, due to failing eyesight, but her work was shown later in at least eight local exhibitions. She once concluded an interview by saying, "It's so nice to have lived long enough to have been discovered".

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Van Sweringen, Ron
American,   1936- 
An heir to the C&O Railroad fortune, Ron Van Sweringen grew up in Hampton Virginia and began painting when he was nine. During his adult life he lived in Old Town Alexandria, VA and later retired to Florida.

In 1982, Nancy Reagan discovered his work in a Georgetown gallery and purchased two impressionist paintings for their private residence at the White House. In addition to having been hung at The White House, in both Reagan and Bush administrations, Van Sweringen's realist and representational-styled works have been included in exhibitions at the Corcoran Museum of Art and in various private local, national and international collections.
 

Wall, Alfred Bryan
American, 1861-1935
As a second generation "Scalp Level School" artist, Mr. Wall frequented that artist's retreat outside of Pittsburgh with his father and uncle, Pittsburgh artists Alfred S. Wall and William Coventry Wall. This experience and the tutoring by his father was his only art training. His work includes portraits of Andrew Carnegie and Mrs. Henry Clay Frick along with his pastoral landscapes which featured sheep and occasionally cows. His brushwork was often loose but confident and exhibited a freedom of spirit. His work is often described as being casual and calm but without sentimentality. His first exhibition was in 1879 at the National Academy of Design and he was a trustee of the Carnegie Institute where he served on the Fine Arts Committee to help select the permanent collect.

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Wall, Alfred S.  
American, 1825-1896
The father of A. Bryan Wall and brother of William C. Wall, Alfred was a large influence on many artists and collectors. In addition to his painting, he became a well respected consultant to the emerging collectors in Pittsburgh. He was one of the initial trustees to the Carnegie Institute. As the case with the other Scalp Level artists, Alfred S. Wall concentrated his efforts on landscapes but painted portraits to help support himself.

Wall, Bessie
American, 1872 - 1937
Bessie Wall was born Sarah Elizabeth Wall on October 13, 1872 in Woods Run, Allegheny County Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Alfred S. Wall, the Pittsburgh painter, and was one of five children along with Sarah Virginia, Robert Carr, Alfred Bryan (Bessie painted similar subjects as her brother Alfred), and Helen Myers. In 1858, Robert and Helen got diphtheria and Robert survived but lost his hearing. She was the niece of William Coventry Wall.

Bessie, along with her brother Alfred Bryan, was taught painting by their father and accompanied him and her uncle to Scalp Level, PA, a popular destination for Pittsburgh painters of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Ahead of her time, her works are expressionist in nature and are characterized by fast brush strokes with a freedom of hand. She is best known for her landscapes which sometimes included domestic animals and usually worked with oils.

As the sole surviving daughter, Bessie was responsible for the care of her parents while her bother Alfred Bryan moved to Philadelphia to set up a studio. On March 4, 1933 she finally married her childhood sweetheart, William Jamison, after the death of his first wife. It is said in the family that William Jamison had very good taste in jewelry. Bessie died on November 1, 1937.

Biography developed with the help of Barbara Wall, great-grand niece of the artist.

 

Waugh, Samuel Bell
American, 1814-1885
Waugh was born in the small western Pennsylvania town of New Wilmington, the home of Wolf's Fine Art.  He was an accomplished  portrait and landscape painter He studied under J.R. Smith in Philadelphia; and also spent time in France, England, and Italy perfecting his talent. Waugh is best known for his portraits of Lincoln and Grant, and is highly regarded for his panoramas of Italy. Other artists in his family included his wife, Mary Eliza Young Waugh, their
son, Frederick Judd Waugh, their daughter Ida Waugh, and a nephew, Henry W. Waugh.

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Wells, George
British, 1842-1888
A member of the Royal College of Art, Wells painted genre, landscapes, flowers, still life, and portraits. 

White, Robert
American, 1921
After several years of study under Jacques Maroger, Technical Director of the
restoration laboratories at the Louvre in Paris, and author of "The Secret Formulas
and Techniques of the Masters", Robert White acquired the formula for reconstructing
the oil medium used by the Dutch and Italian masters of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.

Robert White has achieved recognition as a Trompe l' oeil and representational still
life expert - a field in which very few artists can succeed, because of its
technical and artistic demands. His paintings have been exhibited at the Corcoran
Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C., The Peale Museum and the Baltimore Museum of
Art in Maryland, the well known Grand Central Art Galleries and the Wickersham
Gallery in New York City. His paintings hand in many private collections, including
those of Mr. Charles White, Chairman of the Board of Republic Steel Corporation, Mr.
Charles Bartlett, the well known Washington columnist, and in the collection of
International Telephone and Telegraph to name a few.

 

Wilcox, Ruth
American, 1908 - ?
Mrs. Wilcox was born in New York City and was married to Ray Wilcox. She was primarily a painter and a commercial artist but was also known as a craftsperson. She was a member of the AAPL and NAWA and studied at ASL, NY School of Fine & Applied Art, PAFA and Academie Julian in Paris. Mrs. Wilcox was also known as Ruth Wilcox Dawes. The following is an exhibition history: NAD, 1931-33; PAFA Ann., 1932; NAWA, 1933, 1935-46; Carnegie Inst.; CAFA, 1934; Montclair Art Museum, 1933-46; Rochester, Poughkeepsie, both in NY; Jersey City, Newark, Hackensack, Trenton, all in NJ; Salons of Am. Awards: prizes, NAWA, 1932, 1934; NAD, 1934; Ridgewood (NJ) AA, 1935, 1947, 1948; Wichita Art Museum, 1937; Fitzwilliam, NH, 1938-41; medal, Montclair Art Museum, 1936, 1939.
Her works are part of the following collections: Maugham School, Tenafly, NJ; Grammar School, Leonia, NJ.; Palisades Interstate Park Commission; murals, Provident Institution for Savings, Jersey City; Colonial Life Ins. Co., East Orange, NJ.; Knickerbocker Country Club, Tenafly, NJ.

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Wooster, Austin C.
American, 1864-1913
Austin C. Wooster, son of Dr. Henry Wooster and Rebecca Thornburg, was a southwestern Pennsylvania painter of portraits, landscapes, and still lifes from 1860 to 1916.  His great-grandfather, Thomas Thornburg, was a member of the Pennsylvania Militia during the Revolutionary War. He was born on the Thornburg farm in Chartiers Valley, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. This is now part of a town called Thornburg. Austin's grandparents, Jacob and Jane Lorain Thornburg, who raised him after the early death of his parents, discouraged his art, looking on it as an insane fancy or crime, rather than as a gift. Wooster lived in Green Tree (then called Union Township), Allegheny County, Pennsylvania where he earned his living as an artist and did occasional work at house painting. Wooster had a studio in Pittsburgh at Fourth Avenue and Wood Street. He exhibited his work in various ways, including the 1890 Western Pennsylvania Exposition Society, and Pittsburgh department stores, where he sold his work. Wooster also did work for hire; painting houses, farms, and vineyards in neighboring communities. According to two of Wooster's neighbors he did portraits, and he gave lessons in watercolor to at least one young girl, also a neighbor

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Revised: 03/06/2008