William McGregor Paxton

Who was William McGregor Paxton?

William McGregor Paxton was an American Impressionist painter.

He was born in Baltimore. In the mid-1870s his family moved to Newton Corner, where William's father James established himself as a caterer. At 18, William won a scholarship to attend the Cowles Art School, where he began his art studies with Dennis Miller Bunker. Later he studied with Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris and, on his return to Boston, with Joseph DeCamp at Cowles. There he met his future wife Elizabeth Okie, who also was studying with DeCamp. After their marriage, William and Elizabeth lived with his parents at 43 Elmwood Street, and later bought a house at 19 Montvale Road in Newton Centre.

Paxton, who is best known as a portrait painter, taught at the Museum School from 1906 to 1913. Along with other well-known artists of the era, including Edmund Charles Tarbell and Frank Weston Benson, he co-founded The Guild of Boston Artists and he is identified with the Boston School. He was well known for his extraordinary attention to the effects of light and detail in flesh and fabric. Paxton's compositions were most often idealized young women in beautiful interiors.