Quick Facts
Biography
Will Hicok Low (May 31, 1853 – November 27, 1933) or Will Hicock Low was a United States artist, muralist, and writer on art.
Biography
He was born at Albany, New York. In 1873 he entered the atelier of Jean-Léon Gérôme in the École des Beaux Arts at Paris, subsequently joining the classes of Carolus-Duran, with whom he remained until 1877. Returning to New York, he became a member of the Society of American Artists in 1878 and of the National Academy of Design in 1890. His pictures of New England types, and illustrations of John Keats, brought him into prominence.
Subsequently, he turned his attention to decoration, and executed panels and medallions for the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, a panel for the Essex County Court House in Newark, New Jersey as well as numerous panels for private residences and stained glass windows for various churches, including St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, Newark.
He was an instructor in the schools of Cooper Union, New York, during 1882 to 1885, and in the school of the National Academy of Design from 1889 to 1892. Low, who is known to a wider circle as the friend of R. L. Stevenson, published some reminiscences, A Chronicle of Friendships, 1873-1900 (1908).
In 1909 he illustrated the book "In Arcady" by Hamilton Wright Mabie. The style was influenced by the Art Nouveau movement.
In 1909 he married the former Mary Fairchild, the former wife of sculptor Frederick William MacMonnies.
A mural by him is located in the Howard M. Metzenbaum U.S. Courthouse.