American Antique Illustration Painting G W Picknell Title The Introduction

Picknell, George W. American, 1864-1943 George W. Picknell, born in 1864 in North Springfield, Vermont, was a well-known rural landscape painter. After working in Boston as a young engraver, Picknell left to study art at the Paris Julian Academy in 1887. During his long tenure in France, Picknell founded the American Artists Association of Paris and regularly exhibited his works of the French countryside at the Salon des Artistes Français. In 1911, Picknell moved back to the United States, settling in Silvermine, Connecticut, where he would finish out his life. While in Silvermine, he founded the Silvermine Artist Guild and the Fine Arts Theatre in Westport, Connecticut. He was a regular participant in major exhibitions in the United States and France where he exhibited paintings at the Pennsylvania Academe of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Society of Independent Artists, and had a one- man exhibition at the Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis (Now the Indianapolis Museum of Art); his French venues included (in addition to the Salon des Artistes Français) exhibitions in Toulouse and Nice. He was a member of the Salmagundi Club, the American Federation of Arts, and the Springfield, Illiinois Art Association. Picknell will always be remembered for his stunningly alluring paintings of rural landscapes of both Connecticut and France

Bio from askart com:George W. Picknell was born in North Springfield, Vermont on June 26, 1864. A landscape specialist and brother of noted painter William Lamb Picknell, George Picknell became widely know for his renderings of Connecticut and rural France. Picknell lived in Boston, MA, for much of his boyhood and worked as an apprentice to a Boston engraver before he left for Paris in 1887 where he studied at the Julian Academy (Academie Julian) under Jules Lefebvre and Benjamin Constant from 1887 until 1890. On his return to the U.S., Picknell worked for some years as an illustrator in Boston and New York. Then he returned to Paris for about 15 years where he regularly exhibited his works of the French countryside at the Paris Salon and at important exhibitions in Nice and Toulouse. He was a founding member of the American Artists Association in Paris. He appears to have returned to the American in 1910 or 1911 and held a solo exhibition of his work at the John Herron Institute in Indianapolis (Now the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1911. He was active in Freehold, NJ, before settling in Silvermine, CT, in 1912. He was a member of the Knockers Club (precursor to the Guild) and founding member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists and exhibited as well at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Society of Independent Artists and the Chicago Art Institute. He was also a member of the Salmagundi Club and the American Federation of Arts. During World War I, Picknell and his wife, SGA artist Florence Picknell, operated the Fine Arts Theater in Westport, CT. In 1945, two years after his death, his work was exhibited at the Silvermine Guild's 50th Anniversary Exhibition. A writer for the Norwalk Hour thought the Picknell works on view showed the "majesty of nature." Written and submitted January 2005 by Daniel R. Gordon art collector from Pensacola, Florida. The source of this biography is a compilation of data taken "from Cincinnati Art Galleries where I purchased my painting by Picknell, Daniel Spiegelman of Spiegelman Galleries, and information from the Connecticut Artist Project at the University of Connecticut."

Item ID: Rl3335