William Baxter Closson  (1848   -   1926)  Works

William Baxter Closson (1848 – 1926)

Born in 1848 in Vermont, William Baxter Closson was educated at the Thetford Academy, before working as a railroad clerk. He would later move to Boston to work as a wood engraving apprentice with Samuel S. Kilburn and study drawing at the Lowell Institute. He was then employed as a freelance engraver for Harper’s Magazine and other Boston publishing companies. From 1881 to 1883, Closson stayed in Europe to engrave masterpieces for Harper’s Magazine. During this time, he exhibited at the Paris Salon. In 1888, Closson developed his own method for wood engraving but later quit engraving for painting in 1890. He was a member of the Boston and Washington Art Clubs, the Washington Society of Artists, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, the Allied Artists of America, the Union Internationale des Beaux-Arts et des Lettres, the National Arts Club, and the League of American Artists in Massachusetts. 

Photo Source: Newton, Massachusetts Historical Society