William A. Coulter
{{short description|American painter}}
{{about||the Adirondack architect|William L. Coulter|the Celtic guitarist|William Coulter}}
{{Infobox person
| name = William A. Coulter
| image = William A. Coulter.jpg
| caption = William A. Coulter as a young man.
| birth_date = {{birth date|1849|3|7}}
| birth_place = Glenariff, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
| death_date = {{death date and age|1936|3|13|1849|3|7}}
| death_place = Sausalito, California, US
| nationality =
| occupation = painter
| spouse = Harriet Angela Hostetter
| children = 3
}}
William A. Coulter, born William Alexander Coulter (March 7, 1849 – March 13, 1936), was an Irish-born American painter of marine subjects. Coulter was a native of Glenariff, County Antrim, in what is today Northern Ireland. He became an apprentice seaman at the age of 13, and after seven years at sea, came to settle in San Francisco in 1869.Hughes, Edan, 2002
Career
File:William Coulter - San Francisco.jpg
In the late 1870s, he went to Europe to study with marine artists Vilhelm Melbye, François Musin, and J. C. Jacobsen. In 1896, he joined the art staff of the San Francisco Call.Hughes, Edan, 2002
Between 1909 and 1920, he painted five 16-by-18-foot murals for the Assembly Room of the Merchants Exchange Building.
During the course of his life, his paintings chronicled the history of shipping and navigation in the San Francisco and San Pablo bays.{{cite web|url=http://www.edanhughes.com/biography.cfm?ArtistID=145 | work =Edan Milton Hughes: Specializing in the Art of Early California since 1960. (edanhughes.com) | title = Artist Biography: William Coulter, 1849 - 1936 | accessdate =January 26, 2009}}
Death
Coulter resided in the San Francisco Bay Area until his death on March 13, 1936, at the age of 87, in his Sausalito home. Funeral services were held at the Robert F. Russell Mortuary in Mill Valley.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88332888/obituary-for-william-a-coulter-aged/ | title = Noted Marine Artist Passes| work =Petaluma Argus-Courier |place=Petaluma, California |date=14 Mar 1936|page=3| access-date =November 4, 2021}}
Legacy
William A. Coulter's most famous work was his San Francisco Fire, 1906. The SS William A. Coulter was a Liberty ship which was constructed and deployed in 1943, and named in his honor.{{cite web |url=http://www.maritimeheritage.org/vips/coulterWilliamA.html | work = The Maritime Heritage Project (maritimeheritage.org) |title=William A. Coulter | accessdate=January 26, 2009}}
In 1923, the United States Post Office issued a commemorative 20-cent stamp with one of Coulter's paintings.Hughes, Edan, 2002 The Hawaii State Art Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Oakland Museum of California, the Orange County Museum of Art (Newport Beach, CA), and the U.S. Navy Museum (Washington, DC) are among the public collections holding work by William A. Coulter.[http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/search/Search_Grid.aspx?searchtype=MUSEUMS&artist=7274 AskArt.com]
References
- Hughes, Edan, Artists in California 1786-1940, Sacramento, Crocker Art Museum, 2002.
- Severson, Don R. Finding Paradise: Island Art in Private Collections, University of Hawaii Press, 2002, pp. 81–2.
External links
- [http://www.kahnfoundation.org/WACoulterExhibition.htm William A. Coulter Exhibition] (website of the Paul and Linda Kahn Foundation)
- [http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/irish-artists/william-coulter.htm William Coulter at Visual Arts Cork, Irish artist Encyclopedia]
- [http://www.america-scoop.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=885:fowles-arthur-wellington-1815-1883-uk&catid=226:&lang=fr&Itemid=419 COULTER, WILLIAM ALEXANDER] (1849-1936)
Footnotes
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{{commons category|William Alexander Coulter}}
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Category:19th-century American painters
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:American male painters
Category:American marine artists
Category:People from Sausalito, California
Category:Artists from Marin County, California
Category:19th-century American male artists
Category:20th-century American male artists
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