William Jurian Kaula (

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, 1871 - 1953) was an American watercolor painter.

Life and career

Having been born in Boston, he spent most of his life there and summer in

New Ipswich New Ipswich is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,204 at the 2020 census. New Ipswich, situated on the Massachusetts border, includes the villages of Bank, Davis, Gibson Four Corners, Highbridge, New ...

, New Hampshire. His artistic training began at Mass Normal Art School and included his apprenticeship at Cowles Art School, where he also was a watercolor painting instructor. He also attended the Julian Academie in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. It was in Paris that he met his wife the also artist Lee Lufkin Kaula (1865 - 1957) in Crecy, France, in 1894. They married in 1902 and they maintained a house and a studio in the Fenway Studios in the USA. Celebrated for its Impressionist landscapes, William Kaula was one of the leading painters of the Boston School. Born in Boston, Kaula studied at the Julian Academie in Paris and studied with

Edmund Tarbell Edmund Charles Tarbell (April 26, 1862August 1, 1938) was an American Impressionist painter. A member of the Ten American Painters, his work hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonia ...

, the famed landscaper, at the

Boston Museum School The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusett ...

. In Boston, Tarbell was among his most admired mentors and the two painted side by side in New Hampshire. Kaula is among the most talented students of landscape painting under the influence of Tarbell and was known as a "Tarbellite". Although he seldom (or never) chose themes typically associated with the Boston School, or interiors or formally dressed figures, he is strongly associated with the group, and held a position of esteem in Boston's artistic circles. Kaula participated and exhibited at the Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915. As his career progressed, Kaula's aerial landscapes became increasingly expressionist, and now he is considered Tarbell's greatest student. Throughout his career, Kaula has exhibited 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 ...

, at the National Drawing Academy, at the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

and at the Boston Art Club. The

Copley Society of Art The Copley Society of art is America's oldest non-profit art association. It was founded in 1879 by the first graduating class of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and continues to play an important role in promoting its member artists and th ...

held a retrospective of William Kaula before his death in 1953; the

Smithsonian Museum of American Art 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 ...

, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the National Museum of Georgia and the Washington County Museum of Art are currently showcasing their work. The work of William J. Kaula is being rediscovered recently, The Springfield Museums held an exhibition along with the launch of the book on the work of the painter and his wife: ''Two Lives One Passion: The Life and Work of William Jurian Kaula and Lee Lufkin Kaula''.

References

Painters from Boston American watercolorists 1871 births 1953 deaths People from New Ipswich, New Hampshire Académie Julian alumni American expatriates in France {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaula, William