William Dunlap
Playwright, Author
1766 – 1839
Who was William Dunlap?
William Dunlap was a pioneer of American theater. He was a producer, playwright, and actor, as well as a historian. He managed two of New York's earliest and most prominent theaters, the John Street Theatre and the Park Theatre. He was also an artist, despite losing an eye in childhood.
He was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, the son of an army officer wounded at the Battle of Quebec in 1759. In 1783, he produced a portrait of George Washington, now owned by the United States Senate, and later studied art under Benjamin West in London. After returning to America in 1787, he worked exclusively in the theater for 18 years, resuming painting out of economic necessity in 1805. By 1817, he was a full-time painter.
In his lifetime he produced more than sixty plays, most of which were adaptations or translations from French or German works. A few were original: these were based on American themes and had American characters. However, he is best known for his encyclopedic three-volume History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States, which was published in 1834, and which is now an invaluable source of information about artists, collecting, and artistic life generally in the colonial and federal periods.
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- Born
- Feb 19, 1766
Perth Amboy - Also known as
- Robert Dunlap
- Nationality
- United States of America
- Profession
- Employment
- General Manager, John Street Theatre
(1796 - ) - General Manager, New Park Theatre (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- New York Guard
(1814 - ) - Vice President, National Academy of Design
- New York City
- General Manager, John Street Theatre
- Lived in
- New York City
(1777 - ) - London
(1784 - )
- New York City
- Died
- Sep 28, 1839
New York City
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
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"William Dunlap." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/william_dunlap>.
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