William J. McCloskey
1859
–1941
BirthplacePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Death placeOrange, California, United States of America
BiographyA painter of still-lifes, portraits, and genre scenes (portrayals of everyday life), William J. McCloskey was an important figure in California’s early art scene and best known for exquisitely painted images of oranges and other fruit. McCloskey was a native of Philadelphia, where he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under history painter Christian Schussele (1824–1879) and Thomas Eakins, a master of realism and exacting technique. His early attraction to still-life painting may reflect the influence of the Peale family of painters, still-life masters who had dominated the Philadelphia art world earlier in the century. In 1882, shortly after completing his studies, McCloskey took up a teaching position in Denver, Colorado, where he met artist Alberta Binford (1855–1911). The two married in 1883 and the following year moved to Los Angeles where they quickly became mainstays of the young city’s burgeoning art scene.
In late 1885 or early 1886, the McCloskeys moved to New York. In the five years that followed, they developed their specialization in fruit and floral still-life painting. Working both separately and collaboratively, they typically painted objects casually arranged and dramatically lit on polished mahogany tabletops with rich, dark drapery backgrounds. Alberta painted more exotic and visually varied fruits and took up floral painting, while her husband often focused on round fruit such as apples and oranges, typically showing them partly emerging from crisp paper wrapping. Both painted the produce of individual species with a high degree of accuracy and specificity, often reflected in their titles. Their highly finished works belong in a then contemporary American trend in still-life painting known as trompe l’oeil (French for “fool the eye”), characterized by a perfect illusionism, as demonstrated in another work in the Terra Foundation collection, Richard La Barre Goodwin’s Two Snipes (TF C1982.2). In New York, the McCloskeys also began painting somewhat sentimental genre scenes, often posing their daughter for photographs from which they painted, in the manner of William’s teacher Eakins. They also continued the lucrative practice of portraiture they had begun in California, and made illustrations for popular lithographic prints and other publications.
Throughout their joint and separate careers, the McCloskeys were extremely mobile, traveling throughout the United States and Europe to fulfill portrait commissions and to exhibit and promote their work. They spent periods of time in San Francisco, London, Paris, Salt Lake City, and New York, in addition to Los Angeles. When the couple separated in 1898, William remained in California, moving to Oregon in the mid-1920s.
In late 1885 or early 1886, the McCloskeys moved to New York. In the five years that followed, they developed their specialization in fruit and floral still-life painting. Working both separately and collaboratively, they typically painted objects casually arranged and dramatically lit on polished mahogany tabletops with rich, dark drapery backgrounds. Alberta painted more exotic and visually varied fruits and took up floral painting, while her husband often focused on round fruit such as apples and oranges, typically showing them partly emerging from crisp paper wrapping. Both painted the produce of individual species with a high degree of accuracy and specificity, often reflected in their titles. Their highly finished works belong in a then contemporary American trend in still-life painting known as trompe l’oeil (French for “fool the eye”), characterized by a perfect illusionism, as demonstrated in another work in the Terra Foundation collection, Richard La Barre Goodwin’s Two Snipes (TF C1982.2). In New York, the McCloskeys also began painting somewhat sentimental genre scenes, often posing their daughter for photographs from which they painted, in the manner of William’s teacher Eakins. They also continued the lucrative practice of portraiture they had begun in California, and made illustrations for popular lithographic prints and other publications.
Throughout their joint and separate careers, the McCloskeys were extremely mobile, traveling throughout the United States and Europe to fulfill portrait commissions and to exhibit and promote their work. They spent periods of time in San Francisco, London, Paris, Salt Lake City, and New York, in addition to Los Angeles. When the couple separated in 1898, William remained in California, moving to Oregon in the mid-1920s.