WILLIAM MATTHEW PRIOR Biography American Artist (1806 - 73) Header Photo: Low resolution detail from the painting, Child in Blue with Dog, 1848 by William Matthew Prior © Estate of William Matthew Prior. Biography Gallery Prints Search Site A Life 1 8 0 6  -   1 8 7 3 All images © Estate of William Matthew Prior. William Matthew Prior ~ Biography William Matthew Prior. b Bath, ME, 1806. d Boston, MA, 1873. William Matthew Prior had a very "flat" style, a "likeness without shade or shadow" that he offered at a cut rate. Prior could paint in an accomplished three-dimensional style; he probably received some professional instruction from the portrait and landscape painter Charles Codman, and admired Gilbert Stuart enough to name a son after him. To satisy clients and streamline his practice, however, Prior adapted techniques from ornamental painting and determined prices by the time spent painting. With hindsight, the bold colours and insistent flatness of his work recall the work of Edouard Manet, suggesting why early twentieth-century Modernists were among the first to appreciate American folk art. Source: The American Art Book (Mini Edition) In 1827 he billed himself as a specialist in "ornamental painting...bronzing, oil guilding and varnishing." From this he advanced to sign painting and mechanical rendering, and by 1828 he was hawking his portraits. Source: The Folk Art Tradition: Naive Painting in Europe and the United States (direct link to book @ amazon.com. Gallery W I L L I A M   M A T T H E W  P R I O R All images © Estate of William Matthew Prior. William Prior print fine art prints ebay.com (direct link to the exquisite prints) PRIOR FINE ART PRINT Affiliate/Advertising policy. William Matthew Prior Biography Gallery Prints Search Site    Top of Page © Lenin Imports