William Bliss Baker

Infobox Artist
bgcolour =
name = William Bliss Baker

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imagesize = 200px
caption = "Fallen Monarchs" by Baker.
birthname =
birthdate = 1859
location = New York City
deathdate = 1886-11-20
deathplace = Hoosick Falls, New York
nationality = USA
field = Painting
training = M.F.H. de Haas Albert Bierstadtcite web|url=http://www.fineartstrader.com/baker.htm|title=BAKER, WILLIAM BLISS American 1859 - 1886|author=Edward P. Bentley|first=Edward P.|last=Bentley|accessdate=2007-04-20]
movement = Realism
works = "Fallen Monarchs" "Morning After the Snow"
patrons =
influenced by =Hudson River school
influenced =
awards = Elliott Prize for Drawing (1879) Hallgarten Prize (1885)

William Bliss Baker (1859 - 1886-11-20)cite news |title=Died |publisher=The New York Times|page=5 |date=1886-11-22 |accessdate=2007-04-19 |quote=BAKER.—At Hoosic Falls, N.Y., Nov. 20, in the 27th year of his age, William Bliss Baker, artist, late of this city, son of Col. B.F. Baker. Funeral at St. Mark's Church, Hoosic Falls, Tuesday, 23rd inst., at 12:30. ] was an American artist born in New York City who was just beginning to hit his stride as a landscape painter in the Realism movementcite news |title=Selling works of art: Pictures of Baker, Sprague's collection, and the Baker Statues. |publisher=The New York Times|page=5 |date=1887-03-18 |accessdate=2007-04-19 |quote=...William Bliss Baker, the lately deceased landscape painter, whose death by accident at the early age of 27 deprived America of one of its most promising artists...] when he died at his father's house at Hoosick Falls, New York at the age of 27 due to a back injury received while ice skating several months earlier.

Baker studied at the National Academy of Design for four years beginning in 1876, where he won first prize during his first exhibit in 1879. By 1881, Baker had set up a studio north of Albany, New York. He also had a studio in the Knickerbocker Building in New York City. His paintings were created using oils and watercolors, including several works done in black and white.

His masterpiece painting, "Morning After the Snow", sold for $5000 in 1887 (the equivalent of about $109,000 in 2006 dollars).cite web|url=http://www.westegg.com/inflation/|title=The Inflation Calculator|author=S. Morgan Friedman|first=S. Morgan|last|Friedman|accessdate=2007-04-20] "Morning" and an additional 129 of his paintings sold at that auction for a combined total of nearly $15,000.

Works

Black and white

*"The Brook" (unknown)

Color

*"Hiding in the Haycocks" (1881, housed in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art)
*"A Pleasant Day at Lake George" (1883)
*"October Morning" (1884)
*"Woodland Brook" (1884)
*"Morning After the Snow" (1885)
*"Fallen Monarchs" (1886, housed in the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University)
*"Under the Apple-Trees" (1886)
*"A Cool Retreat" (unknown)
*"April Day" (unknown)
*"April Snow" (unknown)
*"Autumn in Woods" (unknown)
*"Autumn Woods" (unknown)
*"Branches of Elm" (unknown)
*"Cattle Grazing Near a Stream Through the Pasture" (unknown)
*"Clover Field" (unknown)
*"Corn Fields and Pasture" (unknown)
*"Dead Leaves" (unknown)
*"Dried Up" (unknown)
*"Early Autumn" (unknown)
*"Edge of the Woods" (unknown)
*"Fallen (a study)" (unknown)
*"A Forest Glade" (unknown)
*"Forest Sunshine" (unknown)
*"A Haze" (unknown)
*"In the Old Pasture" (unknown)
*"June Pastures" (unknown)
*"June Sunshine" (unknown)
*"Meadow Brook" (unknown)
*"The Old Orchard" (unknown)
*"Orchard in June" (unknown)
*"Schoharie Creek" (unknown)
*"Second Growth Timber" (unknown)
*"Shadows in the Pool" (unknown)
*"Shady Pool" (unknown)
*"Snow Scene" (unknown)
*"Solitude" (unknown)
*"Spring Pasture" (unknown)
*"Still Pool in the Woods" (unknown)
*"Study of Snow" (unknown)
*"Sunny Brook" (unknown)
*"Wood Interior" (unknown)
*"Wood Interior" (#2) (unknown)
*"Wood Interior" (#3) (unknown)

Title sources: ,

References

Persondata
NAME=William Bliss Baker
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=William Baker
SHORT DESCRIPTION=An American landscape realist artist from the mid- to late-1800s
DATE OF BIRTH=1859
PLACE OF BIRTH=New York City
DATE OF DEATH=1886-11-20
PLACE OF DEATH=Hoosick Falls, New York