WILLIAM
LESTER STEVENS
American 1888-1969 (MA)
“COASTAL VILLAGE”
oil on canvas
Signed "W LESTER STEVENS"LR
Provenance: Charles M Talbot Associates, Maine
Private Collection, Pennsylvania
Museums: 13, including the Smithsonian, Wadsworth Atheneum, Rockport Art Association, Hunter Museum,
Museum of Fine Arts-Springfield, Hickory Museum
Books: 27 including Curtis, Judith A, W. Lester Stevens, N.A.
Periodicals: 4 articles American Art Review
Galleries: 22, including Spanierman,
Image size: 20” x 24”
SOLD
#4849
oTHER pAINTINGS BY william lester stevens:
STEVENS, William Lester (1888-1969)
Birth place: Rockport, MA
Death place: Greenfield, MA
Addresses: Rockport, MA, until 1934; Boston, Springfield, Conway, MA
Profession: Landscape painter, teacher
Studied: with Parker S. Perkins in Rockport; Boston Museum of Fine Arts School.\; in Europe after WWI
Exhibited: National Academy of Desogm, 1906 (at age 18); Art Institute of Chicago, 1911-38; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Annual, 1912-37; Corcoran Gallery biennials, 1914-28 (5 times, incl. 4th prize, 1921); Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, 1924 (prize);
1927 (prize); American Watercolor Society, 1928 (prize); New Haven Paint & Clay Club, 1929 (prize), 1933 (prize), 1942 (prize);
Springfield AL, 1925 (prize), 1932 (prize),1953-55 (prizes); Quincy, 1932 (medal); Springville, UT, 1931 (prize), 1941 (prize);
Women's Club, MA, 1930-33 (prizes),1934 (prize), 1937 (prize), 1938 (prize); Salons of Am., 1934; Meriden Art & Crafts Assn., 1938-42 (prizes);
Washington Landscape Club, 1939 (prize); Washington Watercolor Club, 1942 (prize); Washington Art Club, 1941 (prize);
Rockport Artists Association, 1953 (prize), 1956 (prize), 1957 (prize); North Shore Artists Association, 1953 (prize); Ogunquit, ME,
1952-54 (prizes), 1956 (prizes); Gloucester, MA, 1958 (prize).
Member: National Academy; Associate member of the National Academy of Design.
, 1935; AWCS; Rockport Artists Association (founder, 1923); Gallery on Moors; Springfield (MA ) AL; Guild Boston Artists; Philadelphia
Watercolor Club; NY Watercolor Club; New Haven Paint & Clay Club; Gloucester Society of Artist; North Shore Artists Association,
1923-69; Boston Watercolor Club.
Work: Canton Art Institute; Hickory Musem of Art; Asheville Museum of Art; Rochester Memorial Art Gallery; Springfield Museum of
Fine Arts; Boston Arts Club; Birmingham (AL) Public Library; Gloucester (MA) High School.; Rockport (MA) High School; Tewksbury
(MA) State Sanitorium; Mint Museum Art; WPA murals, USPOs, Dedham, Rockport, both in Massachusetts; Boston City Club;
Louisville (KY) Art Museum; Springville (UT) Arts Association; Wilson, Wolcott, Gavin schools, all in Boston
Comments: He left Rockport in 1934 for western Massachusetts, settling in Conway in 1944. Nicknamed "Steve," he was considered
eccentric, and compulsive about painting outdoors every day. He produced about 5,000 paintings. After a summer painting on Monhegan,
he said "I've done 606 and got 6 good ones!" His early works have a heavy impasto in oil while his later works are often of light washes in
acrylic on masonite. He taught for short periods at Boston University and Princeton, but held frequent classes at his Conway studio as well as in
Washington, DC and at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts. He took his students to Asheville, NC, New Orleans, Charleston SC, Quebec
and Gaspe, Canada; and in the 1930s Stevens ran a summer art school at Grand Manan.
Sources: Who’s Who 1959; Charles Movalli, article in American Artist (Apr., 1986, p.52); WW47; Curtis, Curtis, and Lieberman, 116, 186;
Falk, Exh. Record Series; info. courtesy North Shore AA.
This biography is drawn from the "Who Was Who in American Art" , the reference book on the cultural life in the United States.
Museums:
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Louisiana State University Museum of Art
Rockport Art Association
George Walter Vincent Smith Museum
Museum of Fine Arts-Springfield
Colby College Museum of Art
Asheville Art Museum/Crawley Museum
The Hickory Museum of Art
Rochester Memorial Art Gallery
Hunter Museum of American Art
Museum of Art at Brigham Young University
Springville Museum of Art
Wright Museum of Art
The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts
Books:
Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson,The Artists Bluebook
Davenport, Ray, Davenport's Art Reference
Lyme Art Association, Artists of Cape Ann
Curtis, Judith A, W. Lester Stevens, N.A. (1888-1969): A Retrospective
Spanierman Gallery, Art for the New Collector 1840-2001
Tysver, Ted, Small Masterpieces, The Joy of Collecting
Falk, Peter Hastings, Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975
Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin, American Paintings Before 1945 in the Wadsworth Atheneum
Curtis, Jane/Will, F Lieberman, Monhegan, The Artists' Island
Gerdts, William H, Art Across America (East)
Falk, Peter Hastings, The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago
Falk, Peter Hastings, Annual Exhibition Record, 1901-1950, National Academy of Design
Falk, Peter Hastings, Annual Exhibition Record,1876-1913, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Falk, Peter Hastings, Annual Exhibition Record, 1914-68, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Falk, Peter Hastings, Dictionary of Signatures & Monograms
Zellman, Michael David, 300 Years of American Art
Opitz, Glenn B (editor), Mantle Fielding's Dictionary American Painters, Sculptors et al
Falk, Peter Hastings, Who Was Who in American Art Artists Active 1898-1947
Opitz, Glenn, Dictionary of American Artists
Pierce, Patricia Jobe, Edmund C Tarbell and the Boston School of Painting (1889-1980)
Lippincott, Miriam, editor, Artists of the Rockport Art Assoc.
Springfield Library & Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, The American and European Collections
Weber, Nicholas Fox, American Painters Of the Impressionist Period Rediscovered
Springville Museum of Art, Permanent Collection Catalog Springville Museum of Art
Cooley, John L, Rockport Sketchbook, Stories of Early Art and Artists
Clark, Eliot, History of the National Academy of Design 1825-1953
Mallett, Daniel Trowbridge, Index of Artists
Periodicals:
American Art Review, October 2003, W. Lester Stevens, N.A. (1888-1969)
American Art Review, February 2003, Artists of Cape Ann
American Art Review, October1998, Images of a New England Seacoast
American Art Review, August 1994, Sharing Your Paintings
For information, call (901) 761-1163 or (901) 683-4668 or email mfcreech@bellsouth.net
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