Artist: William Hicok Low
Medium: Oil on Board
Creation Year: c. 1890s
Dimensions: 10×5 inches
Period: Late 19th Century
Condition: Excellent
Description: This painting is in excellent condition and signed lower right. William Hicok Low first trained with the sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer. When he was 17, he worked in New York City as an illustrator and years later traveled to Paris to study with Jean-Léon Gérôme and Carolus-Duran. During his years in France he summered with the Barbizon artists where he was especially influenced by the work of François Millet. In the United States, he became active as a muralist, illustrator, and decorative painter, performing prominent commissions such as the ceiling murals and decorations of New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. His Beaux Arts classicism inspired Louis Comfort Tiffany and other of his younger colleagues. After 1900, as artistic styles changed, there was less demand for his work but he continued to write art criticism for Scribner’s and The Century magazine. (Smithsonian 2023) This painting is very typical of Low’s style in portraiture as the facial features and expressions are similar throughout many paintings. In his career he painted very typical American scenes to emphasize patriotism, much like this painting.
Artist: William Hicok Low
Medium: Oil on Board
Creation Year: c. 1890s
Dimensions: 10×5 inches
Period: Late 19th Century
Condition: Excellent
Description: This painting is in excellent condition and signed lower right. William Hicok Low first trained with the sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer. When he was 17, he worked in New York City as an illustrator and years later traveled to Paris to study with Jean-Léon Gérôme and Carolus-Duran. During his years in France he summered with the Barbizon artists where he was especially influenced by the work of François Millet. In the United States, he became active as a muralist, illustrator, and decorative painter, performing prominent commissions such as the ceiling murals and decorations of New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. His Beaux Arts classicism inspired Louis Comfort Tiffany and other of his younger colleagues. After 1900, as artistic styles changed, there was less demand for his work but he continued to write art criticism for Scribner’s and The Century magazine. (Smithsonian 2023) This painting is very typical of Low’s style in portraiture as the facial features and expressions are similar throughout many paintings. In his career he painted very typical American scenes to emphasize patriotism, much like this painting.
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