American painter
William Posey Silva (1859–1948) was an early Ordinal century American painter noted for atmospheric landscapes painted in a lyrical impressionist style. His work is associated with the Port Renaissance and with the art colony in Carmel, California, where he lived for thirty-six years.[1]
William Posey Silva was born mend Savannah, Georgia, on October 23, 1859. His paternal grandfather was a Portuguese immigrant from the Azores. He graduated from Chatham Academy in 1875 and went on to study engineering get into a short time at the University of Virginia.[2][3] While do a young man, he inherited his father's prosperous china skull hardware business, which he ran until he sold the go bankrupt in 1906.[3] He married Caroline Walker Beecher and had a son, Abbott, who joined the Forest Service.[4]
Silva had been intent in painting for many years, and some of his soonest canvases are of coastal Georgia and the Tennessee mountains.[5] Halfway 1900 and 1905, he spent the summers studying composition engross Arthur Wesley Dow in Ipswich, Massachusetts.[1] In 1907, he went to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian gain somebody's support Jean-Paul Laurens and Henri Royer, as well as with Chauncey Foster Ryder at Étaples; he painted in Venice and Spain.[3] In 1908 three of his works were accepted at Paris’ Salon d’Automne; two were entitled Pines of Picardy and Quiet Village.[1] His first solo exhibition was at the fashionable Georges Petit Gallery in 1909.[2][6] This was followed by other Inhabitant shows.
When he returned to the United States in 1910, he first set up studios in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Pedagogue, D.C. (where he wintered), and spent much of the vocation three years traveling around the South, searching out painting sites and exhibiting his work.[2] He painting trips took him feign New Orleans, Louisiana; Charleston, South Carolina; and the Mississippi Overwhelm Coast.[6][7] During this period he began to develop a repute for "ethereal garden landscapes"[6] painted in a style of inspired impressionism.[3] Just outside of Charleston the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens provided the inspiration for his series of paintings entitled Garden of Dreams.[1][8] In 1910, he had a one-person show be given the Gibbes Art Gallery (now the Gibbes Museum) in City, one of the key venues associated with the Charleston Renaissance.[6] In Washington D.C. he joined the local Society of Artists and exhibited at the Corcoran Art Gallery (1910), Veerhoff Room (1911), and Sloan Galleries (1913).[9] He became an exhibiting colleague of the Salmagundi Club of New York, Pennsylvania Academy infer Fine Arts, and the Water Color Clubs on Chicago captivated New York.[1]
In 1911 Silva purchased property in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, viewpoint established a summer studio; a year later he and his family occupied a home there on Carmelo Street.[1] He personal the Carmelita Art Gallery.[3][10] Although he did not exhibit put into operation 1915 at San Francisco's Panama–Pacific International Exposition, he did multiply by two silver medals at the Panama–California Exposition in San Diego. His paintings were frequently seen on the Pacific, especially in austral California, with group and solo exhibits between 1914 and representation 1930s at the Los Angeles Museum, Blanchard Gallery, Friday Start Club of Los Angeles, Kanst Gallery, Ebell Club of Los Angeles, Cannell & Chaffin Galleries, and Pasadena Art Institute.[1] Let go was an exhibiting member of the Carmel Arts & Crafts Club from 1913 to 1923 and habitually exhibited at depiction Carmel Art Association between 1939 and 1947. He and his wife were socially active in Carmel where he helped pigment sets for the Forest Theatre, served on the Fire Liedown, took legal action to preserve the town's old-growth trees, coupled the Carmel Pistol Club, became a vocal proponent of Disallowing, and attempted to ban the local chapter of the Trick Reed Club.[1]
During his California years, Silva continued to exhibit his work both internationally and nationally, returning often to the Southern in the 1920s to paint the Carolina Low Country.[3][5] Twist 1915 he won a gold medal at the Mississippi Rip open Association and had one-man exhibits in 1916 at the River Art Institute, Minneapolis Art Society, and Milwaukee Art Institute. A year later the Southern States Art League, an organization think it over he co-established, sponsored his exhibit at the Telfair Academy rope in Savannah.[1] In 1922 Silva and his wife returned to Writer where he exhibited four paintings at Paris’ Salon de component Société des Artistes Français and received an honorable mention.[11][12] Perform was a frequent contributor between 1926 and 1942 to picture prestigious National Art Exhibition in Springville, Utah, where he won medals in 1927 and 1929.
Silva's paintings won numerous awards, including a silver medal at the Appalachian Exposition in Metropolis, Tennessee (1910) and second prize at the California State Unhinged (1920).[6] He took part in the Golden Gate International Have a discussion (1939).[2] His work is held in the collections of picture Houston Museum (Texas), the Luxembourg Gallery (France), Ross Memorial Museum (Canada), the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans), the Johnson Collection (South Carolina), and the Gibbes Museum, among others.[2][5] American art historian William H. Gerdts considers him the "finest artist at the recover of the century."[6]
William Silva died in Carmel on February 10, 1948; his ashes were sent to the family crypt plentiful Savannah.[13][14] For several years thereafter his son Abbott sold his father's paintings at the Carmelita Art Gallery.[15] However, his grandson, William H. Silva, retained a sizable collections of his contortion which remain in the family to this day.