William Sergeant Kendall

The painter William Sergeant Kendall was known for his evocative scenes of domestic life; his wife and daughters were frequent subjects in his early work.  He began his training at the Brooklyn Art Guild and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as a student of Thomas Eakins, returning to New York City in 1886 to study at the Art Students League.  He moved to Europe in 1888 for further study, including a period at the École des Beaux-Arts, and continued to paint, earning recognition at the Paris Salon in 1891.  A year later he returned to New York and established his studio.  Kendall and his family eventually moved to Newport, Rhode Island and then to New Haven, Connecticut, where he was a professor and head of the School of Fine Arts at Yale University from 1913 to 1922.  He left the university in 1922 and relocated to rural Bath County, Virginia, where he continued to paint until his death.  He was the recipient of numerous prizes and awards for his work, and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.  His papers from 1900 to 1936 are housed at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.