William Willet
| William Willet | |
|---|---|
January 1910
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|
| Born | November 1, 1869 New York City |
| Died | March 29, 1921 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Stained Glass, Murals, Portraiture |
| Notable work | Great West Window depicting the Seven Liberal Arts, Procter Hall, Princeton University; Chancel Window, Cadet Chapel, West Point Military Academy |
| Movement | American Gothic Movement |
| Patron(s) | Calvary Protestant Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh; First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh; William McKinley; Ralph Adams Cram |
William Willet (November 1, 1869 – March 29, 1921) was an American portrait painter, muralist, stained glass designer, studio owner and writer. An early proponent of the Gothic Revival and active in the "Early School" of American stained glass, he founded the Willet Stained Glass and Decorating Company, a stained glass studio, with his wife and partner Anne Lee Willet, in protest against the opalescent pictorial windows which were the rage at the turn of the twentieth century.
A descendant of Thomas Willett, the first English mayor of New York City, Willet was born on November 1, 1869 in New York. He studied under the artist William Merritt Chase, at the Tradesmen's Institute in New York City and in France and England. Originally a portrait painter, Willet made portraits for President William McKinley, John Jacob Aster, William McEwan, among others. He assisted John La Farge between 1885–1887 during which time he served as art director and painted faces on murals.
In 1896 he married Anne Lee, daughter of the Reverend Henry F. Lee, of Philadelphia. In 1897 the couple moved to Pittsburgh, where Willet served as art director of stained glass artist Ludwig Grosse's stained glass firm from 1897–98, before establishing his own studio, the Willet Stained Glass Company, in 1899.
Inspired by European work and the Pre-Raphaelites, Willet rebelled against the American School of stained glass – a movement established by Louis Comfort Tiffany and John La Farge identified by its use of opalescent glass. Willet believed that opalescent glass ignored the principles of architecture and did not fulfill the purpose of a window. Instead, he was enamored with the medieval technique of transparent antique glass, lecturing and writing constantly on the subject. As a member of what Charles J. Connick termed the "Early School" of stained glass artists, Willet, and fellow craftsmen Otto Heinigke and Harry E. Goodhue, are credited with renewing America's interest in traditional medieval materials, techniques, and aesthetic.
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