William A. Coulter
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
of marine
Marine art
Marine art or maritime art is any form of figurative art that portrays or draws its main inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea—a genre particularly strong from the 17th to 19th centuries...
subjects. Coulter was a native of Glenariff
Glenariff
Glenariff is a glen in the County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Like all glens in that area, it was shaped during the Ice Age by giant glaciers....
, County Antrim
County Antrim
County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...
, in what is today Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. He became an apprentice
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
seaman
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...
at the age of 13, and after seven years at sea, came to settle in San Francisco in 1869. In the late 1870s, he went to Europe to study with marine artists
Marine art
Marine art or maritime art is any form of figurative art that portrays or draws its main inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea—a genre particularly strong from the 17th to 19th centuries...
Vilhelm Melbye
Vilhelm Melbye
Vilhelm Melbye was a Danish marine artist, the brother of Anton Melbye and Fritz Melbye. He worked in London from 1853 to 1866 and, over the course of his career, painted seascapes, coastal and harbor scenes, sailing vessels and topographical subjects in many parts of Europe, especially in the...
, François Etienne Musin, and J. C. Jacobsen. In 1896, he joined the art staff of the San Francisco Call
San Francisco Call
The San Francisco Call was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called The San Francisco Call & Post, the San Francisco Call-Bulletin, San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, and the News-Call Bulletin...
. Between 1909 and 1920, he painted five 16 by 18 foot murals for the Assembly Room of the Merchants Exchange Building
Merchants Exchange Building (San Francisco)
The Merchants Exchange Building was rebuilt in 1904 at 465 California Street, San Francisco. Designed by architects Daniel Burnham and Willis Polk, who were working in Burnham's San Francisco office at the time, it was built in 1903, substantially destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire and ...
. Coulter resided in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
until his death at the age of 87, in his Sausalito
Sausalito, California
Sausalito is a San Francisco Bay Area city, in Marin County, California, United States. Sausalito is south-southeast of San Rafael, at an elevation of 13 feet . The population was 7,061 as of the 2010 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to...
home. During the course of his life, his paintings chronicled the history of shipping
Shipping
Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...
and navigation
Ship transport
Ship transport is watercraft carrying people or goods . Sea transport has been the largest carrier of freight throughout recorded history. Although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises...
in the San Francisco
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
and San Pablo
San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in northern California in the United States. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep water channel approximately in mid bay, which allows access to Sacramento, Stockton, Benicia, Martinez, and...
bays.
Legacy
William A. Coulter's most famous work was his San Francisco Fire, 1906. The SS William A. Coulter was a Liberty shipLiberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
which was constructed and deployed in 1943, and named in his honor. In 1923, the United States Post Office issued a commemorative 20-cent stamp with one of Coulter’s paintings. The Honolulu Academy of Arts
Honolulu Academy of Arts
The Honolulu Academy of Arts is an art museum in Honolulu in the state of Hawaii. Since its founding in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke and opening April 8, 1927, its collections have grown to over 40,000 works of art.-Description:...
, the Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California or Oakland Museum is a museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California located in Oakland, California....
, the Orange County Museum of Art
Orange County Museum of Art
The Orange County Museum of Art is a museum located in Newport Beach, California.The museum's collection comprises more than 3,000 objects, with a concentration on the art of California from the early 20th century to present...
(Newport Beach, CA) and the U.S. Navy Museum
U.S. Navy Museum
The National Museum of the United States Navy, or U.S. Navy Museum for short, is the flagship museum of the United States Navy and is located in the former Breech Mechanism Shop of the old Naval Gun Factory on the grounds of the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., USA.The U.S...
(Washington, DC) are among the public collections holding work by William A. Coulter.
External links
- William A. Coulter Exhibition (website of the Paul and Linda Kahn Foundation)
- 20-cent Golden Gate stamp A painting by W.A. Coulter inspired the vignetteVignette (philately)In philately, the vignette is the central part of a postage stamp design, such as, a monarch's head or a pictorial design, which often shades off gradually to the edges of the stamp....
. - William Coulter at Visual Arts Cork, Irish artist Encyclopedia