Sunset on Pier at Cape Cod
$3,800
(prices subject to change)
William Frederick Paskell was born in London in 1866, and moved to Boston in 1872 as a youngster with his family. Paskell was a well regarded artist in the 19th century, and by the age of twenty-one he was already mentioned in the press as a very promising artist, with his paintings hanging beside the work of such masters as Childe Hassam and John J. Enneking in the annual Boston Art Club exhibitions. Paskell started painting in a fairly tight style of Impressionism, and gradually reached a loose Impressionistic style before World War I.
In 1900 he married, and by 1905, had four children. In order to provide for his large family, Paskell pushed his paintings faster than the market could absorb them, and thus depressed the prices of his own works. This somewhat commercial approach to painting produced a large number of works of clipper ships and harbors.
William Paskell is connected to the name "T. Bailey," one of the pseudonyms he used for works he painted for the tourist trade during the early to mid-20th century. Another was "H.H. Howe." These tended to be paintings associated with the Massachusetts communities around Rockport. After 1910 a large number of marine paintings by "T. Bailey" flooded the market, all sold by local dealer Morris Hambro.
Paskell painted up to the day of his death, dying in Boston in 1951 at the age of eighty-five, in humble circumstances. He is considered one of the last "White Mountain School of Painters" with a connection to the 19th century. He painted both with watercolors and oils. After years of neglect Paskell's paintings are finally earning the kind of respect due a master of his considerable talent.