William Langson Lathrop (1859-1938)
William Lathrop was born in Ohio in 1859. He was the founder of the New Hope, Pennsylvania, Impressionist Colony and was known as one of America’s premier landscape painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His style was Tonalist, which coincided with Impressionism but was neither plein air nor focused on light, sunny colors. He was not innovative in style, but much admired for the strength and skillfully conveyed mood of his canvases.
Born in Painesville, Ohio, near Cleveland, Lathrop was raised on a farm, and as a boy had an appetite for art. Although Lathrop never took formal training, he learned from many artists, most especially John Twachtman, J. Alden Weir, and Henry Ward Ranger. He also painted with William Merritt Chase. In 1888 he married Annie Burt. In 1889 Lathrop brought his family to New Hope, Pennsylvania. He lived at Phillips Mill on the Delaware River about forty miles north of Philadelphia. For more than thirty years he had a successful career, and his home became the center of the growing art colony, which attracted many luminaries including Henry Snell and Daniel Garber. Lathrop was the unofficial father figure.
Lathrop built a boat called “Widge” from which he painted marine scenes, sailing up and down the Mid-Atlantic seaboard. A companion on one of those trips was Albert Einstein, who was teaching at Princeton. In 1938 Lathrop perished in a hurricane off Montauk, Long Island, where he had anchored his boat to escape the storm.
information from the Gratz Gallery & Conservation Studio in New Hope.