William McGregor Paxton

From Vero - Wikipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description

Template:Infobox artist Template:Multiple image Template:Multiple image William McGregor Paxton (June 22, 1869 – 1941) was an American painter and instructor who embraced the Boston School paradigm and was a co-founder of The Guild of Boston Artists. He taught briefly while a student at Cowles Art School, where he met his wife Elizabeth Okie Paxton, and at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston. Paxton is known for his portraits, including those of two presidents—Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge—and interior scenes with women, including his wife. His works are in many museums in the United States.

Early life

He was born on June 22, 1869, in Baltimore to James and Rose Doherty Paxton.<ref name="Whos Who" /> William's father moved the Paxton family and established a catering business in Newton Corner, Massachusetts, in the mid-1870s.<ref name="Historic Newton Wm">Template:Cite web</ref>

Education

Paxton attended Cowles Art School on a scholarship he attained at the age of 18. He studied with Dennis Miller Bunker and Cowles and then went to Paris to study under Jean-Léon Gérôme,<ref name="Historic Newton Wm" /> at École des Beaux-Arts.<ref name="Whos Who" /> Maryhill Museum of Art said he also studied at Académie Julian in Paris.<ref name="Maryhill" /> He returned to Cowles and studied with Joseph DeCamp, who also taught Elizabeth Vaughan Okie.<ref name="Historic Newton Wm" /> She became Paxton's student and then his wife.<ref name="Studio of Her Own" /><ref name="Arts1915 p. 169" />

Marriage

Paxton became engaged in 1896 to Elizabeth Vaughan Okie,<ref name="Studio of Her Own" /><ref name="Arts1915 p. 169">Template:Cite book</ref> and they married on January 3, 1899.<ref name="Whos Who">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Lowrey p. 164">Template:Cite book</ref> They traveled to Europe together<ref name="Studio of Her Own">Template:Cite book</ref> and often spent their summers on Cape Cod and Cape Ann.<ref name="Historic Newton">Template:Cite web</ref> They lived in Newton, Massachusetts,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> first on Elmwood Street with his parents.<ref name="Historic Newton Wm" /> About 1916 they resided or had a studio on Ipswich Street in Fenway Studios in Boston.<ref name="Whos Who" /> They later purchased a house in Newton Center on Montvale Road.<ref name="Historic Newton Wm" />

Paxton's wife managed his career<ref name="Modernity of a New Woman">Template:Cite journal</ref> and modeled for many of his works,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> like the painting in which she was dressed for the ball.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> "William McGregor Paxton... benefited from an art-savvy wife who supported his career, using her energy in the bet that his offered the more secure future," said author and art historian Rena Tobey. The couple had no children.<ref name="Modernity of a New Woman" />

Career

Paxton taught from 1906 to 1913 at the Museum of Fine Arts School <ref name="Historic Newton Wm" /> and painted briefly at Fenway Studios in Boston.<ref name="Whos Who" /> He worked at the Harcourt Street Studios in Boston and when it burned in 1904 he lost close to 100 paintings. He then went to the Fenway Studios for a brief period but then moved on to the Riverway Studios, also in Boston. He is primarily known for his portraits<ref name="Historic Newton Wm" /> and painted both Grover Cleveland<ref name="Whos Who" /> and Calvin Coolidge.<ref name="NPG Coolidge">Template:Cite web</ref> Maryhill Museum of Art says of his artistry, "Paxton was well known for the attention he gave to the effects of light and detail in flesh and fabric. His works often present idealized views of women, such as this portrait (The Red Fan) of his wife Elizabeth",<ref name="Maryhill" /> like Henry James's portrayal of women in his novels The Portrait of a Lady (1881) or The American (1877). His models, often daughters and wives of his patrons, were depicted as refined, cultured women of "conspicuous leisure", and equated with the "precious aesthetic objects surround them", like the women of Thorstein Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) who reflect the wealth of their husbands or fathers.<ref name="Met Tea Leaves" /> He crafted elaborate compositions with models in his studio, using props that appear in several paintings.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Paxton and several other Bostonian artists were inspired by Johannes Vermeer.<ref name="Maryhill" /> The Metropolitan Museum of Art says of Paxton's Tea Leaves (1909) in their collection:

<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

Template:ErrorTemplate:Main other{{#if:|

|}}{{#if:|

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}

Paxton employed a technique where only one area in his compositions was entirely in focus, while the rest was somewhat blurred, something he called "binocular vision" and credited to Vermeer. He began to employ this system in his own work, including The New Necklace, where only the gold beads are sharply defined while the rest of the objects in the composition have softer, blurrier edges.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Paxton is one of the key figures in the Boston School of painting and a co-founder of The Guild of Boston Artists with Frank Weston Benson and Edmund Charles Tarbell.<ref name="Historic Newton Wm" /> As a member of the St. Botolph Club, Paxton played baseball with sculptor and friend Cyrus Dallin.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Between 1926 and 1927, he was interviewed by Dewitt Lockman with 85 other artists and architects associated with the National Academy of Design. Records from the interview are held at the New York Historical Society and the Archives of American Art.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Paxton was made a full member of the National Academy of Design in 1928.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Paxton died of a heart attack when he was painting his wife in their Montvale Road living room. He was 72 years of age.<ref name="Historic Newton Wm" /> An exhibition was held in his memory at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from November 19 through December 14, 1941.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His papers—including sketches, correspondence, and photographs—are held at the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Other selected paintings

Collections

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-break

Template:Col-break

Template:Col-end

References

Template:Reflist

Further reading

Exhibition catalogs
Books

Template:Commons category-inline

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=William_McGregor_Paxton&oldid=578466"