John Williams Taylor

American (1897 - 1983)

John Williams Taylor was a native of Baltimore, Maryland. He studied at the Art Students League, and was a student of Boardman Robinson, J. Francis Smith and Stanton MacDonald Wright. In addition to painting, Taylor was also a lithographer and etcher.  His primary subjects were landscape, waterfowl, and genre scenes.  He taught at the Art Students League in New York, and throughout the United States.

Taylor received many accolades throughout his career, including the Grant of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and prizes from the Baltimore Museum of Art, American Watercolor Society, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. He exhibited nationally and his work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He belonged to the Woodstock Art Association and he was an elected member of the National Academy of Design.

In “Fair Winds,” Taylor utilizes a limited palette of blues and creamy whites to evoke the timeless nature of man’s relationship with the sea.