WILSON HENRY IRVINE   (1869- 1936)                                Artist Images

Wilson Henry Irvine was a master American Impressionist landscape painter. Most closely associated with and best remembered today with the Old Lyme Connecticut art colony, Irvine is best known for his mastery of light and texture.
Born near Byron, Illinois, he was a descendant of early Illinois settlers and farmers. Wilson channeled his family's agrarian interests into a painter's eye for landscape. From the beginning, Irvine's interest in painterly subjects was equaled by a parallel focus on artistic technology. While still in his 20s, Irvine was a pioneer of the airbrush as artistic medium — a medium which had just been developed.

Having mastered the airbrush, in 1888 Irvine moved to Chicago to make his reputation. Irvine's "day job" during this period was as an illustrator/graphic designer, often employing the still-novel airbrush. But simultaneously, Irvine built a career as a serious painter. He worked his way up Chicago art society — he led the Palette and Chisel Club and Cliff Dwellers Club, along with sculptor Loredo Taft.

During these years, Irvine gravitated to the night school of the famed Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied for over seven years. Indeed, the Art Institute was to remain a loyal patron. By the turn of the century, the Institute often showed Irvine's work, and gave him a prestigious solo show over the 1916-1917 Christmas season. To this day, the Art Institute maintains a number of Wilson Irvine paintings in its permanent collection.
While developing his career in Chicago, Irvine frequently headed east, painting in Massachusetts, Connecticut and elsewhere in New England - as early as 1906, he exhibited New England scenes at the Art Institute. He also took working vacations elsewhere in the Eastern U.S., including to Virginia and New Orleans.

But it was not until he was 45 (in 1914) that Irvine packed up and moved his family to Old Lyme, Connecticut, becoming part of the famed Florence Griswold circle, now recognized as the "American Barbizon" hub of American Impressionism. It is as an Old Lyme painter that Irvine is best remembered today. (But even after relocating East, Irvine maintained his contacts with Chicago, where the market for his work remained strong.)
Following through on his early experiments with the airbrush, in his later years Irvine continued to try out new artistic techniques. His later work includes "aqua prints" and "prismatic painting."

Irvine's career was highlighted by three extended sojourns to Europe, where he produced some noteworthy examples of American Impressionist European landscapes. Indeed, although Irvine today is best known for his Old Lyme output and is secondarily recognized for his early Illinois landscapes, his European paintings show a special energy, bringing a uniquely American perspective to the vibrant subjects that captivated the French Impressionist masters. By the end of his career, Irvine was regularly landing solo exhibitions, including at:
• Chicago's Carson Pirie Scott (1922)
• Connecticut's Wadsworth Athenium (1925)
• New York's Grand Central Art Galleries (1930)

Wilson Irvine died on August 21, 1936 leaving behind masterful oeuvre. In recent years, Irvine has been rediscovered and acknowledged as a key figure in early-20th-century American Impressionism.

Memberships:
Associate National Academy of Design, New York, NY (1926)
Lyme Art Association, Lyme, CT

Chicago Society of Artists, Chicago, IL
Salmagundi Club, New York, NY

National Arts Club, New York, NY

Awards:
Art Institute of Chicago (prizes awarded in 1912, 1915, 1916, 1917)
Panama-Pacific Exposition, 1915 (silver medal)
Chicago Society of Artists, 1916 (medal)
Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, 1929 (prize)
Lyme Art Association, 1934 (prize)

Source: Wikipedia