William Bliss Baker


William Bliss Baker
Fallen Monarchs by Baker.
Born 1859
New York City
Died 1886-11-20
Hoosick Falls, New York
Nationality USA
Field Painting
Training M.F.H. de Haas
Albert Bierstadt[1]
Movement Realism
Works Fallen Monarchs
Morning After the Snow
Influenced by Hudson River school[1]
Awards Elliott Prize for Drawing (1879)
Hallgarten Prize (1885)[1]

William Bliss Baker (1859 - 1886-11-20)[1][2] was an American artist born in New York City who was just beginning to hit his stride as a landscape painter in the Realism movement[3] when he died at his father's house at Hoosick Falls, New York at the age of 27 due to a back injury received while ice skating several months earlier.[1][2]

Baker studied at the National Academy of Design for four years beginning in 1876,[1] where he won first prize during his first exhibit in 1879. By 1881, Baker had set up a summer studio named "The Castle" on the east side of Ballston Lake in the town of Clifton Park, north of Albany, New York. The Clifton Park Historic Preservation Commission awarded "The Castle" its Historic Designation plaque. A "Clifton Park Register of Historic Places" sign also marks the studio property.

Baker spent much of his boyhood in the town of Ballston Spa, and he discovered the property where he would build his summer studio while fishing with a friend on Ballston Lake. The home is now a private residence, and it is not open to the public.

"Fallen Monarchs", considered to be Baker's masterpiece, was painted in the Ballston Lake area. The original is owned by Brigham Young University in Provo, UT, where it hangs in the BYU Museum of Art. A small copy of this painting hangs in the Town of Ballston public library. His painting, "A Pleasant Day at Lake George" hangs in the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, NY. Baker also had a studio in the Knickerbocker Building in New York City. His paintings were created using oils and watercolors, including several works done in black and white.[1]

One of his masterpiece paintings, Morning After the Snow, sold for $5000 in 1887[3] (the equivalent of about $109,000 in 2006 dollars).[4] Morning and an additional 129 of his paintings sold at that auction for a combined total of nearly $15,000.[3]

Contents

Works

Black and white

  • The Brook (unknown)

Color

  • Hiding in the Haycocks (1881, housed in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art)
  • A Pleasant Day at Lake George (1883, housed in the Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, New York)
  • October Morning (1884)
  • Woodland Brook (1884)
  • Morning After the Snow (1885, housed in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, St. Bonaventure University)
  • Fallen Monarchs (1886, housed in the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University)
  • Under the Apple-Trees (1886)
  • A Cool Retreat (unknown)
  • April Day (unknown)
  • April Snow (unknown)
  • Autumn in Woods (unknown)
  • Autumn Woods (unknown)
  • Branches of Elm (unknown)
  • Cattle Grazing Near a Stream Through the Pasture (unknown)
  • Clover Field (unknown)
  • Corn Fields and Pasture (unknown)
    Hiding in the Haycocks, painted in 1881.
  • Dead Leaves (unknown)
  • Dried Up (unknown)
  • Early Autumn (unknown)
  • Edge of the Woods (unknown)
  • Fallen (a study) (unknown)
  • A Forest Glade (unknown)
  • Forest Sunshine (unknown)
  • A Haze (unknown)
  • In the Old Pasture (unknown)
  • June Pastures (unknown)
  • June Sunshine (unknown)
  • Meadow Brook (unknown)
  • The Old Orchard (unknown)
  • Orchard in June (unknown)
  • Schoharie Creek (unknown)
  • Second Growth Timber (unknown)
  • Shadows in the Pool (unknown)
  • Shady Pool (unknown)
  • Snow Scene (unknown)
  • Solitude (unknown)
  • Spring Pasture (unknown)
  • Still Pool in the Woods (unknown)
  • Study of Snow (unknown)
  • Sunny Brook (unknown)
  • Wood Interior (unknown)
  • Wood Interior (#2) (unknown)
  • Wood Interior (#3) (unknown)

Title sources: [1][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Bentley, Edward P.. "BAKER, WILLIAM BLISS American 1859 - 1886". http://www.fineartstrader.com/baker.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-20. 
  2. ^ a b "Died". The New York Times. 1886-11-22. p. 5. "BAKER.—At Hoosic Falls, N.Y., Nov. 20, in the 27th year of his age, William Bliss Baker, artist, late of this city, son of Col. B.F. Baker. Funeral at St. Mark's Church, Hoosic Falls, Tuesday, 23rd inst., at 12:30." 
  3. ^ a b c d "Selling works of art: Pictures of Baker, Sprague's collection, and the Baker Statues.". The New York Times. 1887-03-18. p. 5. "...William Bliss Baker, the lately deceased landscape painter, whose death by accident at the early age of 27 deprived America of one of its most promising artists..." 
  4. ^ Friedman, S. Morgan. "The Inflation Calculator". http://www.westegg.com/inflation/. Retrieved 2007-04-20. 






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