William Moore Davis (May 22, 1829 – March 26, 1920) was an American painter best known for his landscapes. A native of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, he spent most of his life near

Port Jefferson Port Jefferson (informally known as "Port Jeff") is an incorporated village in the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island. Officially known as the Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson, the population ...

and has been praised as the greatest painter of that village. A contemporary of the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, ...

, he was greatly influenced by fellow local painter

William Sidney Mount William Sidney Mount (November 26, 1807 – November 19, 1868) was a 19th-century American genre painter. Born in Setauket in 1807, Mount spent much of his life in his hometown and the adjacent village of Stony Brook, where he painted portraits, ...

Biography

William Moore Davis was born in

Setauket Setauket is a hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Brookhaven, New York, Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York (state), New York, United States, on the North Shore (Long Island), Nort ...

, Long Island, New York, on May 22, 1829. As a boy, Davis worked in the shipbuilding industry of

before turning to painting full-time. Aside from a handful of years living 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 ...

, Moore spent his entire life in the Northwestern Brookhaven area of

. He was strongly influenced by his friend and fellow painter

, also of

origins. Moore died on March 26, 1920, and was buried in the Sea View Cemetery in

Mount Sinai, NY Mount Sinai is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located within the Political subdivisions of New York State#Town, Town of Brookhaven, New York, Brookhaven, in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was ...

. Davis had few exhibitions during his life but was rediscovered for a 1973 display in Port Jefferson and a 2002 exhibition at the

Long Island Museum The Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages, known as the Long Island Museum (LIM), is a nine-acre museum located in Stony Brook, New York. The LIM serves the Long Island community by preserving and displaying its collection of ...

in Stony Brook

Gallery

File:Port_Jefferson_Harbor_by_William_Moore_Davis.jpg, ''Port Jefferson Harbor'' File:The_Lady_Behind_the_Door_by_William_Moore_Davis.jpg, ''The Lady Behind the Door'' File:Lecture_night_at_the_Baptist_Church,_Port_Jefferson.jpeg, ''Lecture Night at the Baptist Church, Port Jefferson'', 1912 Image:Tidal-inlet-on-long-island-sound.jpg, ''Tidal Inlet On Long Island Sound'' Image:Wreck at Poquot Beach.jpg, ''Wreck at Poquot Beach'' Image:A Close Shave.jpg, ''A Close Shave'' Image:Cider-making-on-long-island.jpg, ''Cider Making On Long Island''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, William Moore 1829 births 1920 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters American genre painters American landscape painters Luminism (American art style) Hudson River School painters People from Setauket, New York People from Port Jefferson, New York People from Mount Sinai, New York 20th-century American painters 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists