Will Henry Stevens

Will Henry Stevens
Stevens circa 1923, New Orleans
Born	(1881-11-28)November 28, 1881 Vevay, Indiana
Died	August 25, 1949(1949-08-25) (aged 67)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Cincinnati Art Academy
Occupation	Modernist painter and naturalist
Known for	paintings and pastels of rural Southern landscape, abstractions of nature, and non-objective works

Will Henry Stevens (November 28, 1881 – August 25, 1949) was an American modernist painter and naturalist. Stevens is known for his paintings and tonal pastels depicting the rural Southern landscape, abstractions of nature, and non-objective works. His paintings are in the collections of over forty museums in the US, including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Will Henry Stevens was born in Vevay, Indiana, a town along the Ohio River. His father was an apothecary and taught Stevens the elements of chemistry and techniques of emulsions, which were later to play a large part in Stevens' experiments with different media. Working with his father, Stevens learned to grind and mix his own paints, skills which later enabled him to develop new formulas for pastel chalks.

Stevens studied at the Cincinnati Art Academy for three years before leaving the Academy to begin working at the Rookwood Pottery as a painter/designer beginning in 1904. While there, Stevens met his wife, Grace Hall, a fellow designer. In 1906, Stevens made the first of many visits to New York. He studied for a while at the Art Students League, but was dissatisfied by the classroom style of William Merritt Chase, and soon dropped out. Stevens was featured in several exhibitions at the New Gallery on 30th Street, which displayed an active interest in the more contemporary art movements under the guidance of its owner, Mary Beacon Ford. At the New Gallery, Stevens met and received the encouragement of Jonas Lie, Van Dearing Perrine, and Albert Pinkham Ryder. Stevens received his first one-man exhibition at the New Gallery in March 1907. Ryder was pleased with the work and asked to meet the artist. Walking around the gallery with Stevens, Ryder commented, “Now remember, you are a poet. Don’t go do what so many painters are doing today—painting out before nature all the time. Just walk out in the pleasant time of the evening.”