Wilbur Winfield Woodward (January 8, 1851 – March 18, 1882) was an American painter.
Early life
Woodward was born in St. Omer, Decatur County, Indiana on January 8, 1851 to Missouri and Charles A. Woodward. Shortly afterwards, they moved to St. Paul, Indiana. At the age of twelve, he accompanied his father, a volunteer in the 123rd Regiment. As a drummer, the younger Woodard was "accorded a place in the martial band of the regiment and with it march from Nashville to Chatatnooga, and from there to Atlanta." He became a member of the veterans association, the
Grand Army of the Republic
The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Il ...
. He returned to St. Paul until he was sixteen, when he moved with his parents to
Greensburg, Indiana
Greensburg is a city in and the county seat of Decatur County, Indiana. The population was 11,492 at the time of the 2010 census.
History
Greensburg was laid out in 1822. The founder, Thomas Hendricks Sr.'s wife being a native of Greensburg, Pen ...
.
Career
Woodward studied under Charles T. Webber while in his teens, then enrolled at the
McMicken School of Design
The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design in Cincinnati, Ohio, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. It was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869, and was a department of the U ...
, Cincinnati upon its opening in 1869. After turning down the job offer as an assistant principal at McMicken in June 1871, Woodward moved to Europe where he studied for a year at
Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp ( nl, Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Antwerpen) is an art academy located in Antwerp, Belgium. It is one of the oldest of its kind in Europe. It was founded in 1663 by David Teniers the Younger, ...
. After moving to Paris, he studied under Gérôme and at the Académie Julien in Paris under
Tony Robert-Fleury
Tony Robert-Fleury (1 September 18378 December 1911) was a French painter, known primarily for historical scenes. He was also a prominent art teacher, with many famous artists among his students.
Biography
He was born just outside Paris, and st ...
. He then returned to Cincinnati for a year as a teacher at the McMicken School of Design, before returning to Paris where he set up a studio. In 1879 he exhibited ''Une cour de vieux Paris'' (A courtyard in old Paris) at the Salon, and in 1880 an ''
Ossian
Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: ''Oisean'') is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as ''Fingal'' (1761) and ''Temora'' (1763), and later combined under t ...
'', subtitled, ''Ossian, vieux et aveugle, restait avec la veuve de son fils, seul survivant d’une race royale et héroïque'' (Ossian, old and blind, left with the widow of his son, only survivor of a royal and heroic race), 67 x 116 cm.Salon 1880, no. 1880, p. 386 In both the 1879 and 1880 Salon catalogues Woodward is recorded living at 22,
Rue Monsieur-le-Prince
Rue Monsieur-le-Prince is a street of Paris, located in the 6th arrondissement. It is named after the Prince of Condé, whose palace bordered it. From 1793 to 1805 the street was called ''Rue de la Liberté''.
The street features in the title of ...
, located between the Odéon and the Sorbonne. No. 22 is a famous old building where other artists had studios and as it has an open courtyard this possibly served for Woodward’s 1879 Salon painting. Hicok Low paints a vivid picture of Woodward in Paris, describing him as one of the "types of the quarter" who would be seen wearing a sombrero, shoulder length black hair, thigh length cavalry boots, and playing his banjo where "memories of the Ohio would resound around the walls of this Paris studio." In Paris, in addition to painting, Woodward also worked a designer for French illustrated journals, and according to Low it was on commission from one of these to record the Yorktown Centennial Celebration in October 1881 that he returned and unfortunately died back in Indiana in 1882, at the young age of 31.
Legacy
Smith in his ''The History of the state of Indiana'' of 1903 writes that "Wilbur Woodward, of Greenberg, gave promise of becoming one of the greatest painters in the world." Woodward’s father donated ''Springtime'' to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. As Woodward died so young his works are rare.''A Girl removing fleas from a dog,'' which is signed and dated 1879, was sold in Metz in 2019. Two
modello
A modello (plural modelli), from Italian, is a preparatory study or model, usually at a smaller scale, for a work of art or architecture, especially one produced for the approval of the commissioning patron. The term gained currency in art circl ...
drawings by him, a ''ricordo'' of the previously mentioned ''Ossian'', and ''Summer Evening'', are in the collection of the