William Greason

William Greason (American, 1884-1945) collection available at the Michigan Art Gallery.

William Greason was born in St. Mary's, Ontario, Canada. He trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia under Thomas Anshutz as well as Hugh Breckenridge whose highly chromatic style had a profound impact on Greason's work. Greason also studied painting in Washington, DC and beginning in 1905, at the Academie Julian in Paris. After returning to the United States, he became a naturalized citizen in 1915 and settled in Detroit where he established at William Greason School of Fine Art, which was similar in concept to the Oxbow Summer School run by the Art Institute of Chicago. He exhibited regularly at the Scarab Club in Detroit and the Salmagundi Club in New York. He painted extensively in Michigan and also in New Lyme, CT. His almost ethereal Impressionist landscapes remain popular with collectors for their whimsical yet understated execution; Greason was renowned for highlighting the European technical influence on turn of the century American landscape painting.