Paul Sawyier

Sawyier, the son of Dr. Nathaniel and Ellen Wingate Sawyier, was born on March 23, 1865, on his grandfather's farm near London in Madison County, Ohio. In 1870, he moved with his family to Frankfort, Kentucky, where he took his first art lessons with Elizabeth S. Hutchins of Cincinnati.{{Cite book| publisher = The University of North Carolina Press| isbn = 978-0-8078-6994-9| last1 = Bonner| first1 = Judith| last2 = Pennington| first2 = Estill Curtis| title = New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 21: Art and Architecture| location = Chapel Hill, UNITED STATES| accessdate = 2023-07-26| date = 2013| url = https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1114606}}

After high school Sawyier attended the McMicken School of Design (now the Art Academy of Cincinnati), studying under Frank Duveneck and Thomas Satterwhite Noble. In 1889, he furthered his art studies under William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League of New York.{{cite web | last =Paul Sawyier Art Gallery | authorlink = | title =About Paul Sawyier | publisher =Paul Sawyier Galleries, Inc. | year =2002 | url =http://www.paulsawyierartgallery.com/About_Paul_Sawyier.aspx | format = | doi = | accessdate =2007-12-19 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20080118114738/http://www.paulsawyierartgallery.com/About_Paul_Sawyier.aspx | archive-date =2008-01-18 | url-status =dead }}

Sawyier worked mostly in watercolor and is best known for his scenes in the Frankfort, Kentucky area and New York.

Sawyier is noted for his paintings of the Kentucky and Dix rivers.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IuGCoLRCN-kC&pg=PA119 | title=The WPA Guide to Kentucky | publisher=University Press of Kentucky | year=1996 | accessdate=24 November 2013 | author=Federal Writers' Project | pages=119| isbn=0813108659 }} In 1893, Sawyier went to the Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition, where some of his works were in the State of Kentucky display. The commissions he received from his work in portraiture provided the bulk of his income for many years. He also sold his landscape watercolors in local stores.{{Cite book| publisher = The University of North Carolina Press| isbn = 978-0-8078-6994-9| last1 = Bonner| first1 = Judith| last2 = Pennington| first2 = Estill Curtis| title = New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 21: Art and Architecture| location = Chapel Hill, UNITED STATES| accessdate = 2023-07-26| date = 2013| url = https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1114606}}

Sawyier originals are on display in Frankfort, Kentucky at Liberty Hall & Orlando Brown House, Paul Sawyier Art Gallery, Kentucky History Center, Kings Daughter's Apartments, and at the University of Kentucky Art Museum in Lexington and Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.{{Cite web|url=http://www.paulsawyiergalleries.com/originals.asp|title=Paul Sawyier Galleries - Originals|website=www.paulsawyiergalleries.com}}

{{Gallery

|title=Some of Paul Sawyier's painting

|width=160 | height=170

|align=center

|File:'Kentucky Fishing Scene' by Paul Sawyier.jpg|Kentucky Fishing Scene

|File:Paul Sawyier blacksmiths-shop-L.jpg|The Blacksmith Shop (Frankfort, Kentucky)

|File:Sawyier Botanical Gardens.jpg|Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

|File:Paul Sawyier walking-in-the-rain.jpg|Walking in the Rain

}}

File:PaulSawyierGrave.jpg

In 1908 Sawyier moved his residence to a houseboat, a small tug boat, where he lived all year round. From 1913 until his death, Sawyier lived in a converted chapel at "Highpoint," the estate of art patron Mrs. Marshall L. Emory in the New York Catskills. While in New York, Sawyier began to binge drink using the money from the sale of his paintings. He found himself in debt, resulting in despression from his financial stress.{{Cite book| publisher = The University of North Carolina Press| isbn = 978-0-8078-6994-9| last1 = Bonner| first1 = Judith| last2 = Pennington| first2 = Estill Curtis| title = New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 21: Art and Architecture| location = Chapel Hill, UNITED STATES| accessdate = 2023-07-26| date = 2013| url = https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1114606}} On November 5, 1917, at the age of 52, Sawyier died of a heart attack. He was buried in a cemetery in Fleischmanns, New York. Five years later, his cousin, Judge Russel McReary, returned Sawyier's body to be reinterred on June 9, 1923, in the Sawyier-Wingate family plot in Frankfort Cemetery in Kentucky.{{Cite web|url=http://www.paulsawyiergalleries.com/life.htm|title=Paul Sawyier Galleries - Sawyier's Life|website=www.paulsawyiergalleries.com|access-date=2019-03-08}} At the time of his death it is estimated that he painted 3,000 works, mostly watercolor landscapes.

{{Reflist}}

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• [http://paulsawyiergalleries.com Paul Sawyier Gallery]
• [http://www.pspl.org Library named for the artist in Frankfort, KY]
• [http://www.history.ky.gov/objects Paul Sawyier paintings at the Kentucky Historical Society]

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Category:1865 births

Category:1917 deaths

Category:Burials at Frankfort Cemetery

Category:People from Frankfort, Kentucky

Category:19th-century American painters

Category:American male painters

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:Painters from Kentucky

Category:Art Academy of Cincinnati alumni

Category:American Impressionist painters

Category:People from Madison County, Ohio

Category:Painters from Ohio

Category:Art Students League of New York alumni

Category:19th-century American male artists

Category:20th-century American male artists

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