Skip to main content
William Charles McNulty
1889–1963
BirthplaceOgden, Utah, United States of America
Death placeGloucester, Massachusetts, United States of America
BiographyPainter and printmaker William Charles McNulty created detailed, realistic New York City images, landscapes, figural works, and circus scenes. Born in the town of Ogden in what was then the Utah Territory (now the state of Utah), McNulty began his career as a newspaper artist-reporter, working for a variety of newspapers in Nebraska and Montana. Between 1907 and 1909 he studied at the popular Art Students League in New York City. McNulty returned to graphic work for newspapers in cities as far-flung as New Orleans and Seattle. In the 1920s, back in New York, he was encouraged by etching master Joseph Pennell (1857–1926), founder of the graphic arts department at the Art Students League, to take up printmaking. McNulty was exhibiting his prints by 1927, when one of his etchings was included in an auction at the Whitney Club (the predecessor of the Whitney Museum of Art). Two years later, another of his etchings was featured in a traveling exhibition organized by the College Art Association, and in 1932 he was represented in the first International Exhibition of Etching organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, where his work continued to be included until 1946.
McNulty seems to have been most active in the 1930s. In 1931 he began his long association with the Art Students League as an instructor along with his wife, illustrator and watercolor painter Ann Brockman (1894–1943), a fellow former student at the League. The two conducted a summer art school in Rockport, on the coast of Massachusetts, where McNulty found subjects for his works. He was also among the many artists who pictured New York City: his etched images range from panoramic views to street scenes documenting everyday life in a manner reminiscent of the etchings of another Art Students League teacher, John Sloan. McNulty's prints were seen alongside Sloan's in an exhibition at the Grand Central Gallery in 1932; he was also included in exhibitions at Macbeth and Kraushaar Galleries in New York.
In the 1930s and 1940s, McNulty was active as a painter and draftsman. Circus performers were a particular specialty, along with marines, still life images, and scenes of the street markets of New York's working-class neighborhoods. In the late 1940s, he experimented with abstracting his forms, rendering them in mosaic-like assemblages of flat, heavily outlined shapes. The Art Students League gave McNulty a retrospective exhibition of his paintings and prints in 1951, by which date he appears to have retired from exhibiting. He continued teaching at the League until 1958, five years before his death at the age of seventy-nine.
McNulty seems to have been most active in the 1930s. In 1931 he began his long association with the Art Students League as an instructor along with his wife, illustrator and watercolor painter Ann Brockman (1894–1943), a fellow former student at the League. The two conducted a summer art school in Rockport, on the coast of Massachusetts, where McNulty found subjects for his works. He was also among the many artists who pictured New York City: his etched images range from panoramic views to street scenes documenting everyday life in a manner reminiscent of the etchings of another Art Students League teacher, John Sloan. McNulty's prints were seen alongside Sloan's in an exhibition at the Grand Central Gallery in 1932; he was also included in exhibitions at Macbeth and Kraushaar Galleries in New York.
In the 1930s and 1940s, McNulty was active as a painter and draftsman. Circus performers were a particular specialty, along with marines, still life images, and scenes of the street markets of New York's working-class neighborhoods. In the late 1940s, he experimented with abstracting his forms, rendering them in mosaic-like assemblages of flat, heavily outlined shapes. The Art Students League gave McNulty a retrospective exhibition of his paintings and prints in 1951, by which date he appears to have retired from exhibiting. He continued teaching at the League until 1958, five years before his death at the age of seventy-nine.