William F. Matthews

American (1878-1966)

William F. Matthews was born in 1878 in St Louis, Missouri. He studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. Matthews worked as a newspaper illustrator and artist before moving to New York City. In New York Matthews founded and became the first president of the Brooklyn Society of Painters and Sculptors. He also joined the local Brooklyn group, The Neighborhood Club. He showed with these groups in the 1920s and 1930s. Matthews continued working for newspapers as an artist. In 1934 Matthews accepted an invitation from wealthy hotelier, Daniel J. O’Brien, to move to Toledo, Ohio. Brien, who built the luxurious Commodore Perry Hotel commissioned Matthews to “beautify the place”. Matthews went on to create murals for churches, colleges, homes, lodge halls, and public places in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans and the Midwest from the 1930s to the late 1940s. In the 1950s Matthews moved to Woodstock, New York. Matthews taught art throughout his life privately and at schools in New York, Ohio and Connecticut.