William McGregor Paxton

William McGregor Paxton (June 22, 1869 – 1941) was an American painter and instructor who embraced the Boston School paradigm and was a co-founder of The Guild of Boston Artists. He taught briefly while a student at Cowles Art School, where he met his wife Elizabeth Okie Paxton, and at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston. Paxton is known for his portraits, including those of two presidents—Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge—and interior scenes with women, including his wife. His works are in many museums in the United States.

Early life He was born on June 22, 1869, in Baltimore to James and Rose Doherty Paxton.

Education Paxton attended Cowles Art School on a scholarship he attained at the age of 18. He studied with Dennis Miller Bunker and Cowles and then went to Paris to study under Jean-Léon Gérôme, and they married on January 3, 1899. They traveled to Europe together and often spent their summers on Cape Cod and Cape Ann. They lived in Newton, Massachusetts, first on Elmwood Street with his parents. and modeled for many of his works, like the painting in which she was dressed for the ball. "William McGregor Paxton... benefited from an art-savvy wife who supported his career, using her energy in the bet that his offered the more secure future," said author and art historian Rena Tobey. The couple had no children. Maryhill Museum of Art says of his artistry, "Paxton was well known for the attention he gave to the effects of light and detail in flesh and fabric. His works often present idealized views of women, such as this portrait (The Red Fan) of his wife Elizabeth",

Paxton and several other Bostonian artists were inspired by Johannes Vermeer.

Paxton employed a technique where only one area in his compositions was entirely in focus, while the rest was somewhat blurred, something he called "binocular vision" and credited to Vermeer. He began to employ this system in his own work, including The New Necklace, where only the gold beads are sharply defined while the rest of the objects in the composition have softer, blurrier edges.

Paxton is one of the key figures in the Boston School of painting and a co-founder of The Guild of Boston Artists with Frank Weston Benson and Edmund Charles Tarbell. Between 1926 and 1927, he was interviewed by Dewitt Lockman with 85 other artists and architects associated with the National Academy of Design. Records from the interview are held at the New York Historical Society and the Archives of American Art. Paxton was made a full member of the National Academy of Design in 1928.

Paxton died of a heart attack when he was painting his wife in their Montvale Road living room. He was 72 years of age. His papers—including sketches, correspondence, and photographs—are held at the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Other selected paintings

Collections

Brooklyn Museum, New York Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Massachusetts Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana Maryhill Museum of Art, Washington state Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. National Academy Museum and School, New York Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Nebraska Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Union League of Philadelphia,