William Preston Dickinson (September 9, 1889 – November 25, 1930) was an American

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...

ist, best known for his paintings of industrial subjects in the Precisionist style.

Biography

William Preston Dickinson was born on September 9, 1889 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

,. a third-generation American in a working-class family.. His father was an amateur painter who made a living as a calligrapher and interior decorator;. he died when Preston was only eleven years old. By 1906, his family had relocated to

Suffern, New York Suffern is a village that was incorporated in 1796 in the town of Ramapo in Rockland County, New York. Suffern is located 31 miles northwest of Manhattan. As of the 2010 census, Suffern's population was 10,723. Dickinson studied between 1906 and 1910 at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

under

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

, as well as under

Ernest Lawson Ernest Lawson (March 22, 1873 – December 18, 1939) was a Canadian-American painter and exhibited his work at the Canadian Art Club and as a member of the American group The Eight, artists who formed a loose association in 1908 to protest ...

. His tuition at the art school was paid by philanthropist and art patron Henry Barbey. Barbey and art dealer Charles Daniel also financed Dickinson's trip to Europe. From 1910 to 1914, he lived in Paris, where he studied at the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...

and

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

, and exhibited his work at the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

and the

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...

. After the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Dickinson returned to the U.S. in September 1914. Lacking resources, he moved in with his mother, widowed sister and her son in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. He shortly participated in several group exhibitions at the

Daniel Gallery Daniel Gallery (April 13, 1859 – November 9, 1920) was a Canadian politician. Born near Labasheeda, in Slievedooley, County Clare, Ireland, the son of Thomas Gallery and Mary O'Neill. Daniel Gallery moved with his fathers and brothers ...

, ultimately receiving his first solo gallery show there in 1923. He spent the summer of 1924 in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

, where he produced a series of drawings of the Peters Mills granaries and factory complex. He lived in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

from 1925 to 1926, where he painted landscapes and street scenes. By the end of the 1920s, he had established a reputation as an important American modernist and his works had entered public and private collections. In June 1930, Dickinson moved to Spain with friend and fellow painter Oronzo Gasparo, looking for a cheap place to live and paint. Dickinson's money ran out by that autumn, but before he could leave Spain he was hospitalized with

double pneumonia Pneumonia can be classified in several ways, most commonly by where it was acquired (hospital versus community), but may also by the area of lung affected or by the causative organism. There is also a combined clinical classification, which combi ...

. He died three days later, on November 25, 1930, in Irun, Spain, and was buried there. He had long been in poor health, suffering from alcoholism among other conditions. Dickinson posthumously received his first solo museum show, staged at

The Phillips Collection The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips and Marjorie Acker Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H. Laughlin, ...

in 1931 by its founder and director Duncan Phillips, who had admired Dickinson's work.

Work

Dickinson was one of the first American artists to focus on industrial subjects. He was working in the Precisionist mode by at least 1915, and his depictions of factories and granaries predate those of fellow Precisionists

Charles Sheeler Charles Sheeler (July 16, 1883 – May 7, 1965) was an American artist known for his Precisionist paintings, commercial photography, and the avant-garde film, ''Manhatta'', which he made in collaboration with Paul Strand. Sheeler is recognized ...

and

Charles Demuth Charles Henry Buckius Demuth (November 8, 1883 – October 23, 1935) was an American painter who specialized in watercolors and turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism. "Search the history of Ameri ...

.. Dickinson was motivated by a reverence for the benefits of technology and industry to humanity, as well as an interest in its formal qualities. Many of his industrial scenes were imaginary (such as ''Factory'' (c. 1920), pictured at right), though his work later shifted towards a greater realism. Dickinson also produced many landscapes, depicting the

Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York, United States, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the New York mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyte ...

at many times during his life, though he was most interested in the cut-stone architecture that lined and crossed the river. He painted numerous still lifes of man-made objects, with table-top settings depicting "simple dining" being a recurring theme. Experimenting with a variety of techniques and styles, his work showed influence from a number of avant-garde art movements, such as

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...

Fauvism Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...

, and

Synchromism Synchromism was an art movement founded in 1912 by American artists Stanton Macdonald-Wright (1890–1973) and Morgan Russell (1886–1953). Their abstract "synchromies," based on an approach to painting that analogized color to music, were amon ...

. His use of color was expressive, showing his influence by the

Post-Impressionists Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction aga ...

and Fauves. His later work, though superficially in a Precisionist style, utilizes off-balance, expressionistic compositions with jagged diagonals.. Some of his work in the 1920s was also observed by critics as having an Oriental influence, believed to derive from his studies of Japanese

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

art. Dickinson produced fewer than two hundred works during his twenty-year career. He usually did not sign or date his works, which together with his stylistic experimentation makes it difficult to place them in a chronology.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dickinson, Preston 1889 births 1930 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters American expatriates in Spain Modern painters Precisionism Painters from New York City People from the Bronx Deaths from pneumonia in Spain Burials in Gipuzkoa People from Suffern, New York 20th-century American male artists

Biography

Work

References

Further reading

External links