Wilford Seymour Conrow (1880-1957) was an American artist, most noted for portrait painting. He married Lyra Millette.

Early life

Wildford Conrow was born in

South Orange, New Jersey South Orange, officially the Township of South Orange Village, is a suburban township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village's population was 16,198, reflecting a decline of 766 (4.5%) fro ...

on June 14, 1880. He studied business at the

Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

, graduated with a degree in businessWilford Seymour Conrow: Morning, N.d. Jan. 2014. "Faces and Figures" Exhibition Label Copy. Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, NC. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1901, and, for eight years, worked as secretary and director of a wholesale paper business. Then, from 1911 to 1916, he lived in Paris, studying art 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 exhibiting work in the 1914

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 ...

."Wilford Seymour Conrow." Hickory Museum of Art- American Collection: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. Hickory, NC: Hickory Museum of Art, 1994. 76-77. Print. Interrupted by

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 ...

, Conrow left his studies to serve the U.S. camouflage department in Europe, designing concealment for men and machinery. While serving in Paris, he met Lyra Millette, an

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

director, and his future wife.

Later life and work

After the war, Conrow returned to New York City, where he lived with his wife above

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

and operated a successful portrait studio. During the summers, he resided in

Hendersonville, North Carolina Hendersonville is a city in Henderson County, North Carolina, United States. It is south of Asheville and is the county seat of Henderson County. Like the county, the city is named for 19th-century North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Leona ...

. In 1940, during an art exhibition in

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

, Conrow met artist Paul Whitener. Conrow had never considered himself a teacher, but when Whitener petitioned the portraitist to instruct him, Conrow accepted the promising young artist as his student. The two worked together each summer for the next fourteen years. During this time, Whitener expressed an interest in establishing an art museum in his hometown of

Hickory, North Carolina Hickory is a city located primarily in Catawba County, with formal boundaries extending into Burke and Caldwell counties. The city lies in the U.S. state of North Carolina. At the time of the 2020 census, Hickory's population was 43,490. Hickor ...

. As Vice-president of the

American Artists Professional League The American Artists Professional League (AAPL) is an American organization that promotes artists and their works. It was formed in 1928 in New York City by Frederick Ballard Williams Frederick Ballard Williams (1871- 1956) was an American landsc ...

in New York, Conrow was greatly in favor of a museum that would promote American art in the south, and proved to be instrumental in the development of the eventual

Hickory Museum of Art Hickory Museum of Art (HMA) is an art museum in Hickory, North Carolina which holds exhibitions, events, and public educational programs based on a permanent collection of 19th to 21st century American art. The museum also features a long-term ...

. Over the years, he would provide the museum with his knowledge of American art, New York connections, paintings from his private collection, and a large number of his own works. His portraits are characterized by an intimacy achieved through weeks of time spent with each of his subjects. Beyond physical appearance, he strove to portray character, and becoming acquainted with the subject was consistently part of Conrow's painting process. He is also known for his unconventional use of bold color to enhance flesh tones. He is included in the permanent collections of the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

, and the

References

External links

*
Conrow portrait of Professor William H. Goodyear, 1916, at the Brooklyn Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conrow, Wilford 1880 births 1957 deaths American portrait painters 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American male artists Artists from South Orange, New Jersey Painters from New Jersey New York University Tandon School of Engineering alumni Princeton University alumni Académie Julian alumni American military personnel of World War I