Creator Record
Metadata
Name |
William Posey Silva |
Dates & places of birth and death |
1859-1948 |
Occupation |
Artist |
Notes |
William Posey Silva was born in 1859 in Savannah, Georgia. He briefly studied engineering at the University of Virginia, as well as art composition under the tutelage of Arthur Dow. He married, established a family, and opened a china and hardware business in Chattanooga, Tennessee. By 1906, however, Silva left his business to pursue a career in the arts and moved to Paris, France, where he studied under artists like Henri Paul Royer, Jean Paul Laurens, and Chauncey Ryder. He moved back to the United States in 1910 and settled in Carmel, California, where he opened the Carmelita Art Gallery in 1912. In 1922, Silva and his wife returned to Europe and visited England, Italy, Spain, and France, while Silva briefly kept a temporary studio at Versailles. Silva enjoyed a widely successful career across the United States and Europe from the mid-1920s to the early 1940s. He died on February 30, 1948, in his beloved town of Carmel. Most known for his Impressionist landscape paintings, he primarily worked with oils and painted en plein air with rapid brushstrokes. His portrait of Chief Fred Lookout was acquired by the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1949. |
