John Willard Raught

Who was John Willard Raught?

John Willard Raught was an American painter.

Raught was born in Dunmore, Pennsylvania in September 1857. For several years he worked as a telegraph operator to support his artistic education, but then he moved to New York City to study art at the National Academy of Design, and later in Paris at the Académie Julian under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre. Raught then returned to Scranton and started painting portraits of the families of this area and landscapes the bucolic hills of North Eastern Pennsylvania and the industrial coal landscape. He painted in French impressionistic style, using plein air to show the outdoor and atmosphere of the idyllic countryside.