About Virgil Williams

  • Biography

    The mainstay of the California School of Design in San Francisco in the late 19th century, he was Director and teacher from its opening in 1874 until his death twelve years later. In this position, he influenced succeeding generations of painters that made San Francisco one of the art capitals of the western world. Among his followers were William Keith, Thomas Hill, and Samuel Marsden Brookes.

    Williams was also highly regarded as a genre, portrait and landscape painter, creating scenes of Europe that hearkened back to an earlier time and occasionally painting California landscapes from trips into Yosemite and the Sierra Nevadas. Albert Bierstadt was a sketching companion.

    He was born in Dixfield, Maine, raised in Taunton, Mas...

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