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About William S. Horton
As one whose work was frequently exhibited at some of the finest art galleries in Paris and New York, William S. Horton enjoyed success in Europe and America. Unlike the older *John H. Twachtman, whose subjective imagery was seldom chosen for awards or even understood, Horton’s brightly colored canvases were concise statements that pleased the art community in general and brought the artist an imposing list of credentials. There is nothing mysteriously subtle about Horton’s art; rather, it boldly exploits a wide variety of subjects.
William Samuel Horton and *Will Howe Foote were born within nine years of each other in Grand Rapids, Michigan. William’s father became prosperous from his business as a dealer of flour and feed grain for livestock. When he was five, William’s family moved to Lisbon, in eastern North Dakota. Horton was truly a child prodigy according to most accounts; furthermore, according to Weber and Wigmore (1974), he was rewarded for his youthful efforts by winning a first prize from the "Children’s Section" at the Michigan State Fair for a composition of roses. At the age of fourteen he was sufficiently confident of his technical skill to open a studio for the purpose of teaching art at fifty cents per period of instruction. About 1880 the editor of The Northwest Magazine recognized William’s talent by buying one of the lad’s canvases and by offering him a position as a staff illustrator. During the following two years, William’s father repeatedly voiced disapproval of William’s job as an artist and subsequently disinherited him with $1,000 as compensation.
Traveling through the Midwest, Horton is said to have been an occasional pupil at the *Art Institute of Chicago during the institution’s early years. If so, he had the opportunity to study in a variety of classes taught by well-known instructors such as *John H. Vanderpoel (drawing). Horton went on to New York City in 1886 where he enrolled at the *Art Students League and the *National Academy of Design. Contemporary with Horton’s move, works by French impressionists were brought from Paris to New York by art dealer *Paul Durand-Ruel where they received attention from the press; accordingly, it is possible that Horton visited this exhibition to receive his first significant introduction to impressionism. His training at the *Art Students League was more liberal than the academic manner offered by instructors such
as *Lemuel Wilmarth and Edgar Melville Ward (1839-1915) at the National Academy. After approximately two years of study, Horton participated in his first National Academy exhibit, showing a floral entitled White Chrysanthemums, priced at $75. In 1889 Horton moved to 51 West 10th Street where he remained for nearly four years, exhibiting each season at the National Academy. Weber and Wigmore (1974) relate how, as a man with many talents, Horton also took voice lessons and sang at times for important dinner parties. In 1892 Horton married Miss Lottie Gray, a wealthy New York socialite who jilted her fiancé for him. During their honeymoon in New England Horton executed a few watercolors that demonstrate a concern with light and atmosphere. These works are rendered in a spontaneous but controlled technique. He is also known to have painted portraits
during this period. After one year or more, Horton and his wife moved to Paris where he studied at the *Académie Julian. There he followed the two-part method of instruction, a daily schedule of drawing from the nude figure, and outside assignments by his instructors to consider the problems of draftsmanship, line, color, theme and composition. Horton came to Paris at a time when impressionism reigned supreme as an acceptable, albeit codified, modern style of painting. But he also must have witnessed the offshoot avant-garde movements. Indeed, color had gone through its scientific application as explained by *Félix Fénéon a decade before and headed in a new direction by the influence of *Van Gogh. It even became decorative in the works of *Claude Monet (Rewald, 1946-A, pp. 561-64). All of this was to influence Horton several years later in the development of his rich, decorative manner.
When he returned to New York in 1895 Horton brought paintings to exhibit in America and he immediately entered two of them in the National Academy annual. He also exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and the *Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1897. Moreover, in the same year, he received his first one-man show at the prestigious *Salmagundi Club, to which he was subsequently elected. Horton maintained a busy schedule in the New York art community, joining and participating in various art organizations and events. His competence in the watercolor medium brought him to the *New York Water Color Club for exhibitions and membership. Horton was energetic and fond of travel: he and his wife made frequent crossings of the Atlantic to find subjects for his canvases. As one usually well received by art critics, Horton’s reputation increased, and by 1903 he was given a one-man show at the galleries of *Georges Petit in Paris. To be represented by this important gallery was more than a subtle honor, for it thrust him into the company of well-recognized contemporary impressionists.
Horton’s expatriate success continued: he won a gold medal at the international exposition at Nantes in 1904 and another medal at Orléans in 1905. In the same year his work was again presented in Paris at Galerie *Berheim-Jeune. From this time onward, the artist’s works were featured six times alternately there, and at Galleries Georges Petit during the next seventeen years. In 1909 International Studio reported that "William S. Horton who has attracted a good deal of attention at the Salons of the *Société Nationale and at the *Salon d’Automne the last few years has had an important exhibition at Petit’s Galleries. Horton has made his specialty the Swiss cantons about the Lake of Geneva, the neighborhood of Montreux and Vevey, sleeping villages. . . snow clad roofs, romantic castles" (Frantz, 1909, p. 320).
Despite his wide range of *subject matter, Horton as a landscapist developed a recognizable style broadly based upon the general techniques of impressionism. He worked en *plein air and remained extremely elastic in his application of *broken color. His technique ranged from a systematic juxtaposition of elongated vertical and diagonal strokes to broad sweeping planes of unbroken hue. Horton spent a great deal of time in England during the summers working regularly at Broadstairs, Sonning-on-Thames and St. Ives, *Cornwall. Setting up his easel in these places at almost every time of the day, he attempted to follow Monet’s concept of *instantaneity. At other times of the year, he followed similar procedures in France at such places as Pontarlier, a winter resort area near the French-Swiss border. But even Monet was criticized for decorative superficiality in the early nineties and Horton’s assimilation of the French master’s "technical prowess" too frequently became sheer artificiality. On the other hand, at times his work was surprisingly subtle in color contrast and tonal modulation. The artist’s technique is unusually inconsistent. He was frequently criticized for ". . . painting different subjects in different ways" (Weber and Wigmore, 1974).
By 1913, the year of the *Armory Show in New York, his work Good Friday in Seville was already included in the permanent collection of the Luxembourg Museum in Paris, and in the following year his work was shown again at Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. Winter and beach scenes are particularly prevalent in his oeuvre at this period, and regardless of the weather, Horton worked all’aperto. He and his family were in constant transit between England and the continent. Art memberships such as the Cercle Volney, the Société Internationale of Paris and others reflect the geographic mainstream of his career activities. During the greater part of World War I and for many years after, Horton lived in England and painted. After the war he made summer trips to Venice (when possible) and winter trips to Gstaad, Switzerland. Here he packed his painting gear and skied from spot to spot to capture the essence of the winter scene. Many of these works are known and have received praise in modern exhibitions.
His paintings were presented at Georges Petit Gallery for the last time in 1922 and two years later he returned to the United States. In 1925 another important show was held at Ainslie Galleries in New York. Quoting Henry Fritch-Estrangin in review of the show, American Magazine of Art stated: ". . . Horton has often been classed as an impressionist. This is perhaps questionable . . . Horton is more alive to complicated and often intensely fugitive and poetic conditions . . . like *Turner, he is joyously occupied with ‘La belle matiPre flamboyante’." ("William S. Horton," 1926, p. 22). In the following year Horton’s work was mounted by the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo and at *Macbeth Gallery in 1927. During this period Horton began exhibiting his scenes of "The Golden Towers of Gotham." Asked how he became interested in the depiction of New York’s skyline from a skyscraper, he explained that he caught glimpses of the city from an elevator when a friend escorted him on a tour of a tall building. And even for this modern urban scenery the artist delighted in his personal adaptation of the impressionist technique. He explained his ideas: "When beginning the series, I set myself a definite task, that of an interpretation midway between architectural exactitude and atmospheric fluidity, the strangeness of the towers ever rising from mysterious depths. . . ." (Sill, 1929, p. 617). There is no question that the urban poetry of these paintings contrasts drastically with the idyllic poetry of his French Alpine scenes. The works were well-received by New York critics.
Horton continued his career in New York until 1932, when his wife died. Shortly after, Horton began to make worldwide tours during which he executed a wide variety of subjects especially in the pastel medium. He worked in Scandinavia, India, China and numerous other places during his years of travel. He was in London in 1936 and died there. Obituaries carried appreciative comments on his work. Three years after his death a retrospective was presented by Galerie Charpentier in Paris. Since that time his work has been seen frequently in America.
REF.
Copeau, 1909; Frantz, 1909; "William S. Horton," 1926; Sill, 1929; Vauxcelles, 1939; Horton, 1963; Weber and Wigmore, 1974; American Painters of the Impressionist Period Rediscovered, 1975, pp. 98-99; Gerdts, 1992-B, cat. no. 43. |
Paintings by William S. Horton
| Mountainside Village, Night |
| pastel on paper: 19 x 24 3/4 inches |
| unsigned |
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Click Picture to Enlarge
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