Charles W Hawthorne Biography | Oil Painting Reproductions

Charles Webster Hawthorne at age 18, went to New York, during the day working as an office clerk in a stained-glass factory and attending night school at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League, taking oil painting classes with Henry Siddons Mowbray and William Merritt Chase. He also went abroad to the Netherlands and studied with and assisted William Merritt Chase while was there, Hawthorne also did the grand tour of Italy. In 1908 he was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician three years later.

While abroad working in the Netherlands as Chase's assistant, Chase influenced Hawthorne to start his school of art when he returned to the States. Besides establishing the Cape Cod School of Art, Charles Webster Hawthorne was also a founding member of the Provincetown Art Association. The Cape Cod School of Art was the first outdoor summer school for live figure painting and portraiture and later became one of the nation's leading art schools.

One of Charles W Hawthorne's summer school art students who were enrolled in the Art Students League was the young Norman Rockwell, who would later become famous for painting small-town Americana scenes. William H. Johnson also studied with Hawthorne and later got a grant from him. Hawthorne once said that the most influential artist in his career was William Merritt Chase. Both men were talented teachers and figurative painters who were drawn to rich color and the lusciousness of oil paint as a medium.

Art Movement: Impressionism.
Artists Influencing Charles W Hawthorne: Henry Siddons Mowbray, William Merritt Chase.
He Traveled To Netherlands, Italy, France.
Painters Charles W Hawthorne Influenced: Norman Rockwell, William H. Johnson.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.