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William Henry Lippincott
1849–1920
BirthplacePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Death placeNew York, New York, United States of America
BiographyWilliam Henry Lippincott established his reputation with somewhat sentimental genre paintings, or scenes of everyday life, that typically feature women and children in domestic interiors. Lippincott was born and educated in Philadelphia, where he began his career as an illustrator and scene painter in theaters. In 1874, after studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Lippincott went to Paris for further training. There, he worked under academic figural artist Léon Bonnat (1833–1922) and began to paint genre scenes that he exhibited, along with portraits, at the prestigious annual display known as the Paris Salon; he also exhibited in the Universal Exposition of 1878 in Paris. During his eight years in France, Lippincott visited several of the picturesque rural and coastal locales then popular with artists, recording the local landscape and peasant life in his paintings.
On his return to the United States, Lippincott settled first in Portland, Maine, but soon moved permanently to New York City. There, he quickly established himself as a successful children’s portraitist. Lippincott exhibited portraits, genre paintings, and landscapes at the National Academy of Design, to which he was elected an associate member in 1885 and a full member in 1897. His work also appeared in annual exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and at expositions in Buffalo in 1901 and St. Louis in 1904. Lippincott painted in watercolor as well as oils, and in 1879 took up the practice of etching, a fine-art print medium, in which he continued to render his highly detailed, anecdotal scenes of comfortable leisure life.
Lippincott taught painting at the National Academy for several years, beginning in 1883. Following his early interest in theater, he designed stage sets, and he also made illustrations. Few other details of Lippincott’s later career are known, but works such as the Terra Foundation’s Cliffs at Etretat (TF 1992.173) provide evidence that he visited France and England in the 1890s, where he painted landscapes. Lippincott remains best known, however, for his genre paintings. Essentially conservative in their academic technique and attention to detail and narrative, his works were attuned to lingering popular taste at the turn of the twentieth century for accessible, easily read treatments of domestic themes that were at once familiar and nostalgic.
On his return to the United States, Lippincott settled first in Portland, Maine, but soon moved permanently to New York City. There, he quickly established himself as a successful children’s portraitist. Lippincott exhibited portraits, genre paintings, and landscapes at the National Academy of Design, to which he was elected an associate member in 1885 and a full member in 1897. His work also appeared in annual exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and at expositions in Buffalo in 1901 and St. Louis in 1904. Lippincott painted in watercolor as well as oils, and in 1879 took up the practice of etching, a fine-art print medium, in which he continued to render his highly detailed, anecdotal scenes of comfortable leisure life.
Lippincott taught painting at the National Academy for several years, beginning in 1883. Following his early interest in theater, he designed stage sets, and he also made illustrations. Few other details of Lippincott’s later career are known, but works such as the Terra Foundation’s Cliffs at Etretat (TF 1992.173) provide evidence that he visited France and England in the 1890s, where he painted landscapes. Lippincott remains best known, however, for his genre paintings. Essentially conservative in their academic technique and attention to detail and narrative, his works were attuned to lingering popular taste at the turn of the twentieth century for accessible, easily read treatments of domestic themes that were at once familiar and nostalgic.