(Cazenovia, NY – Feb. 2016) The works of “Dwight Williams (1856-1932), artist, teacher, scholar and “Cazenovia’s son” will be on exhibition through Feb. 25 at The Art Gallery at Reisman Hall.
Dwight Williams, the son of a Methodist minister, was an American landscape painter and teacher of art. He was born in Camillus and spent most of his life in Cazenovia.
Williams attended Cazenovia Seminary and studied with landscape painter John Calvin Perry (1837-1894) of Delphi Falls. He became head of the Seminary’s art department in 1885 and later taught painting in Virginia at Norfolk College and the National Park Seminary, a finishing school near Washington, D.C. He returned to Cazenovia in 1900 and remained there until his death in 1932. Although physically impaired, he enjoyed the outdoors and was an avid fly-fisherman. He was an active member of the Cazenovia community, serving as a town and village historian.
Although he left many fine examples in oil, Williams is most known for his pastels with landscape, his preferred subject. He was a teacher and mentor to the American artist Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928). They frequently painted together among the fields and hills north of Utica and along Cazenovia Lake.
Williams’ paintings are held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, and the Munson Williams Proctor Institute in Utica.
The Cazenovia Public Library holds an extensive collection of Williams’ paintings bequeathed to the Library by Richard L. and Prudence Burg Hubbard. Richard Hubbard was the son of Robert F. Hubbard, Williams’ friend and longtime patron.
Lorenzo State Historic Site and Cazenovia College also own Williams’ works as do many local private collectors. This exhibition is collaboration between the Cazenovia Public Library and Cazenovia College.
As always, exhibitions and receptions are free and open to the public located at 6 Sullivan St. in Cazenovia on the corner of Sullivan and Seminary streets in the village one block from Albany Street (Route 20).