biography of William Baxter P. CLOSSON (1848-1926)

Birth place: Thetford, VT

Death place: Hartford, CT

Addresses: Newton, MA/Magnolia, MA

Profession: Painter, wood engraver

Studied: Thetford Acad.; Samuel S. Kilburn (engraving apprentice to), Boston; Lowell Inst., Boston.

Exhibited: Paris Salon,1881-83, 1888, 1889 (gravures); Boston AC, 1881-1909; Paris Salon, 1882 (medal); PAFA, 1884, 1898; Paris International Expo of 1889 (award); Columbian Expo, Chicago, 1893 (med); Wash. WCC, 1898-1917; S. Wash. A., 1898-1917 (award, 1913); Pan-Am. Expo, Buffalo, 1901 (medal); AIC, 1902, 1911; St. Louis Expo, 1904; Corcoran biennials, 1908, 1910, 1912, 1919; Mass. Charitable Mechanics Assoc. (medals); Graphic Arts Expo, Vienna (prize); PAFA, 1918-23

Member: Wash. WCC; Boston AC; Copley Soc.; Soc. Wash. Artists; Wash. AC; CAFA; All. Am. Artists; AI Graphic Artists; Union Internationale des Beaux-Arts et des Lettres; NAC; Lg. AA.

Work: NGA; BMFA; NYPL; Worcester AM; Springfield (MA) Pub. Lib.; CI; Herron AI, Indianapolis; Albright Art Gal., Buffalo. NGA; Gallaudet College; NAC, New York; NMAA; Nat. Portrait Gal.; LOC; Howard Univ.; NMAH; PAFA; Cooper-Hewitt Mus.; Brooklyn Mus.

Comments: After studying at Lowell Inst., he worked as a freelance engraver and went to Europe from 1881-83, to engrave masterpieces for Harper's. He then developed a unique wood engraving technique in 1888, and his etchings were included in Louis Prang's Homes and Haunts of Poets. In 1890, he gave up engraving, and focused his career on painting oils and pastels.

Sources: WW24; McMahan, Artists of Washington, D.C.; Fink, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons, 330; Falk, Exhibition Record Series